
Class. 
Book. 






Copyright N°_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



ECLECTIC ENGLISH CLASSICS 

SHAKESPEARE'S 

THE TEMPEST 



EDITED BY 

JOSEPH WAYNE BARLEY, M.A., Ph.D. 

PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH AND MODERN LANGUAGES 

IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI 

SCHOOL OF MINES AND METALLURGY 



AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 

NEW YORK CINCINNATI CHICAGO 






Copyright, 1917, by 
American Book Company 



TEMPEST 
W. P. I 



/ 

APR 1 1 1917 

Oct A * 57900 
/ 



k 



INTRODUCTION 



THE DATE OF THE TEMPEST 



Of the thirty-seven plays that have come down to us from the 
pen of Shakespeare very few can be precisely dated as to the 
time of their composition. 

Although this inexactness applies in the case of The Tempest, 
there are reasons for thinking that Shakespeare wrote this play 
very near the end of his career. We know that the more he wrote 
the better he wrote. If we were to compare The Tempest with one 
of his early plays, as, for example, the comedy of Love's Labour's 
Lost, we should at once be aware of a very wide difference be- 
tween them. The earlier play, though bearing the distinguishing 
quality which we call Shakespearean, is yet one which might 
very well have come from the hand of a man who was only be- 
ginning to learn the difficult art of play-writing — on it are many 
marks of the hand of an apprentice workman. In The Tempest, 
on the other hand, all such shortcomings of inexperience and 
immaturity have vanished. It could have been composed only 
by a man who had gained complete mastery over the art of poetic 
and dramatic craftsmanship. 

Moreover, the similarity of The Tempest in spirit and manner to 
Cymbeline and The Winter's Tale, plays which Shakespeare wrote 
near the close of his long dramatic career, places it in the same 
period. In all likelihood it was the last play he wrote before 
he went back to the beautiful countryside of Stratford, the home 
of his boyhood, where he lived five or six years more, a happy 
and prosperous gentleman. ' ; 

Besides this, there is other evidence which not only strength- 
ens the feeling that The Tempest was of late composition but 
which also helps us to give a reasonably exact date to the play. 



3 



4 INTRODUCTION 

In October, 1610, Silvester Jourdan published a pamphlet 
entitled A Discovery of the Barmudas, otherwise called the He of 
Divels, in which he described how the Sea Venture, one of the 
ships of a fleet which had left England the year before with 
colonists for America, became separated from her sister ships 
during a storm and was wrecked on the Bermuda Islands. Wil- 
liam Strachey, whose name is associated with the dawn of Ameri- 
can literature, also wrote a description of the incident, which 
he called A true reportory of the wracke. Both Jourdan and 
Strachey were members of the party and both give vivid de- 
scriptions of the storm and wreck. There is so much similarity 
between passages in these narratives and certain portions of 
The Tempest that Shakespeare must have known them when he 
composed his play. 

The journey across the ocean to America was a perilous one 
in Shakespeare's time, and no doubt the adventures of Jourdan, 
Strachey, and their shipmates formed a topic of eager discussion 
on the streets and in the taverns of London. It would be quite 
characteristic of Shakespeare, who was always keenly alive to 
what was going on around him, to seize the opportunity ripened 
by such discussion to write his play, and to make use of the de- 
scriptions of Jourdan and Strachey. And since the old Revels' 
Accounts of the period tell us that The Tempest was presented 
before the King on November 1, 16 n, it is reasonable to conclude 
that it had been written between this date and that of October, 
16 10, the time of the publication of Jourdan's pamphlet, from 
which, as we have seen, Shakespeare must have borrowed some 
of the material for his play. 

THE SOURCES OF THE TEMPEST 

An old German play and a Spanish prose tale have been found 
which bear some resemblance to The Tempest but not of a kind 
sufficiently striking to form the basis of the play. In fact, no 
immediate source has been found, a statement that can be made 
of very few of Shakespeare's plays. 



INTRODUCTION 5 

Reference has already been made in discussing the probable 
date of the play to the narratives of Jourdan and Strachey re- 
garding the wreck upon the Bermuda Islands of the good ship, 
the Sea Venture. Besides these two accounts, there were many 
other narratives dealing with seafaring folk and events in that 
era of ambitious exploration and colonization, which Shakespeare 
must have known and from which he may have drawn helpful 
hints. So true to the life is Shakespeare's description of the 
wreck and so accurate is he in his use of seafaring terms, that 
some have declared their belief in his having had actual ex- 
perience at sea. It is altogether likely, however, that he gained 
his knowledge from daring old weather-beaten rovers of the deep 
whom he met and questioned at the inns and alehouses of Lon- 
don. 

THE PLAY 

So far as is known The Tempest was first published in 1623, 
seven years after his death, by Shakespeare's friends and busi- 
ness partners, John Heming and Henry Condell, in their edition 
of the poet's works, the First Folio. The condition of the text 
is unusually good, the best of all the plays with the possible ex- 
ception of The Two Gentlemen of Verona; yet it contains a few 
of the most discussed and most variously emended passages 
to be found in the whole scope of Shakespeare's plays. Though 
by common consent it is among the very latest of the author's 
plays and perhaps the last one he wrote, for no well-defined 
reason it stands first in Heming and Condell's collection. 

As has already been indicated, The Tempest has close affini- 
ties with other plays of Shakespeare written in the same period, 
namely, Cymbeline and The Winter's Tale. To these may be 
added Pericles, a play of somewhat earlier date. All four of these 
plays have in common the motives of reconciliation of estranged 
friends and loved ones, the restoration to parents of lost children, 
and the righting of wrongs by forgiveness; while in Pericles as in 
The Tempest, the loss and reconciliation are due to shipwreck. 
This entire group of plays is called tragicomedies, or dramatic 



6 INTRODUCTION 

romances, a species of drama popular in the last years of Shake- 
speare's life. His turning to this kind of play at the beginning 
of its vogue is an instance which shows how closely he kept his 
fingers on the pulse of the age. After finishing the soul-rending 
tragedies of Hamlet, Macbeth, Lear, and Othello, Shakespeare 
fittingly closed his long and successful dramatic career with 
these beautiful romances of hope, reconcilement, love, and 
idealism. 

Except at colleges and universities, The Tempest is seldom 
played to-day because of its undramatic character. On this 
account it is somewhat strange that it should have been so 
popular immediately after its composition. But it must be re- 
membered that the dramatic conventions of the sixteenth and 
seventeenth centuries differed widely from those of the twentieth. 
Many of Shakespeare's plays so fit the age for which they were 
written that they are not adapted either to the stage itself or 
to the public of the present time. In many respects The Tem- 
pest is a play of this kind. Evidence of its popularity, however, 
has come down to us, and all through the next century it had an 
abiding influence on other playwrights, who were inspired to 
adapt its theme and to imitate its style. 

Present-day interest in The Tempest is largely academic, and 
is based on its literary value and on its engaging artistic worth 
and not on its merit as drama. Prospero, the central character, 
is too powerful to engage our sympathies, for when forces op- 
pose him we know there can be but one outcome; the element 
of suspense upon which drama depends for much of its force 
and interest is therefore lacking. The plot, too, is slight. The 
humor, especially when compared with that in many of the plays, 
is buffoonery, and the wit certainly was not "made of Atalanta's 
heels." Furthermore, the characters in The Tempest are too 
much those of the land of romance to pulsate with the warm 
lifeblood of reality. 

Yet these are only trivial blemishes. When all has been 
said it remains one of the most beautiful plays in the whole 
realm of drama. And this beauty is not hidden beneath a 



INTRODUCTION 7 

stratum of allegory. The Tempest is not allegorical simply 
because it is Shakespearean. As was frequently his wont, Shake- 
speare took a topic of keen contemporary interest, this time the 
wreck of Sir George Somers and his companions upon the Ber- 
mudas while in search of what to Elizabethan England was a 
veritable land of romance, and wove around it a play which 
reflects the colorful imagination of the age in its attempt to 
grasp the wonders of this new, far-distant Eldorado. The doing 
of this was a task that only the master hand could perform, and 
the finished product is a piece of art. Its form is perfect. Its 
characters, though to some extent types, are artistically drawn. 
Its treatment of the supernatural, its blending of the human, 
the superhuman, and the "subhuman" are the very alchemy 
of art. Above all, its appealing idealism calls us away from the 
lowering atmosphere of a materialistic world out into the divine 
air and sunlight of the wonderlands of poetry. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

E. A. Abbott: A Shakespearean Grammar. 

G. P. Baker: The Development of Shakespeare as a Dramatist. 

J. Bartlett: A Concordance to Shakespeare. 

E. K. Chambers: Shakespeare (Encyclopedia Britannica). 

Edward Dowden: Shakespeare: His Mind and Art. 

Edward Dowden: Shakespeare (Literature Primers). 

H. H. Furness: Variorum Edition of T 1 °, Tempest. 

Sidney Lee: A Life of William Shakesp. .ire. 

A. Schmidt: Shakespeare Lexicon. 



THE TEMPEST 



PERSONS OF THE PLAY 



Alonso, King of Naples. 
Sebastian, his brother. 
Prospero, the right Duke of Milan. 
Antonio, his brother, the usurping 

Duke of Milan. 
Ferdinand, son of the King of 

Naples. 
Gonzalo, an honest old Counselor. 
Adrian, | t , 
Francisco, | Lords - 
Caliban, a savage and deformed 

Slave. 



Trinculo, a Jester. 
Stephano, a drunken Butler. 
Master of a Ship, Boatswain, 

Mariners. 
Miranda, daughter to Prospero. 
Ariel, an airy Spirit. 
Iris, 
Ceres, 
Juno, 
Nymphs, 
Reapers, 
Other Spirits attending on Prospero. 



presented by Spirits. 



Scene : A ship at sea: an uninhabited island 



ACT I 

Scene I. On a Ship at Sea: a tempestuous noise of thunder and 

lightning heard 

Enter a Ship-master and a Boatswain 

Master, Boatswain! 
Boatswain. Here, master; what cheer? 

Master. Good," speak to the mariners: fall to 't, yarely, 1 or 
we run ourselves aground; bestir, bestir! 4 

[Exit] 
Enter Mariners 

Boatswain. Heigh, my hearts! cheerly, cheerly, my hearts! 

A superior n indicates a note at the end of the volume. l Briskly. 

9 



io SHAKESPEARE [act i 

yare, yare ! Take in the topsail. Tend to the master's whistle. — 
Blow till thou burst thy wind, if room enough! " 

Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Ferdinand, Gonzalo, 

and others 

Alonso. Good boatswain, have care. Where's the master? 
Play the men." 

Boatswain. I pray now, keep below. 5 

Antonio. Where is the master, boatswain? 

Boatswain. Do you not hear him? You mar our labor. 
Keep your cabins; you do assist the storm." 

Gonzalo. Nay, good, be patient. 9 

Boatswain. When the sea is. Hence ! What cares * these 
roarers" for the name of king? To cabin! Silence! trouble us 
not. 

Gonzalo. Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboard. 13 

Boatswain. None that I love more than myself. You are a 
counselor; if you can command these elements to silence and 
work the peace of the present," we w T ill not hand a rope more. 
Use your authority; if you cannot, give thanks you have lived so 
long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance 
of the hour, if it so hap. — Cheerly, good hearts! — Out of our 
way, I say. [Exit] 

Gonzalo. I have great comfort from this fellow. Methinks he 
hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect 
gallows." Stand fast, good Fate, to his hanging! Make the 
rope of his destiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage ! " 
If he be not born to be hanged, our case is miserable. 25 

[Exeunt] 
Enter Boatswain 

Boatswain. Down with the topmast! yare! lower, lower! 
Bring her to try wi' the main-course." [,4 cry within] A plague 
upon this howling! They are louder than the weather or our 
office." — 

1 Care. 



scene i] THE TEMPEST II 

Enter Sebastian, Antonio, and Gonzalo 

Yet again! what do you here? Shall we give o'er and drown? 
Have you a mind to sink? 

Sebastian. A plague o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, 
inchari table dog! 

Boatswain. Work you, then. 5 

Antonio. Hang, cur! hang, you whoreson, insolent noise- 
maker! We are less afraid to be drowned than thou art. 

Gonzalo. I'll warrant him for 1 drowning, though the ship were 
no stronger than a nutshell. 

Boatswain. Lay her a-hold, a-hold! n Set her two courses." 
Off to sea again; lay her off. 11 

Enter Mariners wet 

Mariners. All lost! to prayers, to prayers! all lost! 

Boatswain. What! must our mouths be cold n ? 

Gonzalo. The king and prince at prayers! Let's assist them, 
For our case is as theirs. 15 

Sebastian. I'm out of patience. 

Antonio. We are merely 2 cheated of our lives by drunkards. — 
This wide-chapp'd 3 rascal, — would thou mightst lie drowning 
The washing of ten tides n ! 

Gonzalo. He'll be hang'd yet, 20 

Though every drop of water swear against it 
And gape at wid'st to glut 4 him. 

1/1 confused noise within] ' Mercy on us!' — 

'We split, we split!' — ' Farewell, my wife and children!' — 
' Farewell, brother!' — 'We split, we split, w T e split!' — ] 25 

Antonio. Let's all sink with the king. [Exit] 

Sebastian. Let's take leave of him. [Exit] 

Gonzalo. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an 
acre of barren ground; long heath, brown furze," any thing. The 
wills above be done! but I would fain die a dry death. [Exit] 

1 From, against. 2 Absolutely, quite. 3 Large-mouthed. 4 Swallow. 



12 SHAKESPEARE [act i 

Scene II. The Island. Before Prospero's Cell 
Enter Prospero and Miranda 

Miranda. If by your art, my dearest father, you have 
Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them. 
The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch 
But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's n cheek, 
Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffer'd 5 

With those that I saw suffer! A brave l vessel, 
Who had, no doubt, some noble creature in her, 
Dash'd all to pieces. O, the cry did knock 
Against my very heart! Poor souls, they perish'd! 
Had I been any god of power, I would 10 

Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere 2 
It should the good ship so have swallow'd and 
The fraughting souls n within her. 

Prospero. Be collected; 

No more amazement. 3 Tell your piteous heart 15 

There's no harm done. 

Miranda. O, woe the day! 

Prospero. No harm. 

I have done nothing but in care of thee, 

Of thee, my dear one, thee, my daughter, who 20 

Art ignorant of what thou art, nought knowing 
Of whence I am, nor that I am more better n 
Than Prospero, master of a full 4 poor cell 
And thy no greater father. 

Miranda. More to know 25 

Did never meddle n with my thoughts. 

Prospero. 'T is time 

I should inform thee farther. Lend thy hand, 
And pluck my magic garment from me. — So; 

[Lays down his mantle] 
Lie there, my art. w — Wipe thou thine eyes; have comfort. 

1 Beautiful, splendid, fine. 2 Before. 

3 Confusion or terror. 4 Used with emphatic force; very. 



scene n] THE TEMPEST 13 

The direful spectacle of the wrack, which toiich'd 

The very virtue of compassion n in thee, 

I have with such provision in mine art 

So safely order'd that there is no soul — 

No, not so much perdition l as an hair 5 

Betid 2 to any creature in the vessel 

Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink. Sit down; 

For thou must now know farther. 

Miranda. You have often 

Begun to tell me what I am, but stopp'd 10 

And left me to a bootless inquisition," 
Concluding, — 'Stay, not yet.' 

Prospero. The hour's now come; 

The very minute bids thee ope thine ear. 

Obey, and be attentive. Canst thou remember 15 

A time before we came unto this cell? 
I do not think thou canst, for then thou wast not 
Out n three years old. 

Miranda. Certainly, sir, I can. 

Prospero. By what? by any other house or person? 20 

Of any thing the image tell me that 
Hath kept with thy remembrance. 

Miranda. 'T is far off, 

And rather like a dream than an assurance 
That my remembrance warrants. Had I not 25 

Four or five women once that tended 3 me? 

Prospero. Thou hadst, and more, Miranda. But how is it 
That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou else 
In the dark backward and abysm 4 of time? 
If thou remember'st aught ere thou cam'st here, 30 

How thou cam'st here thou mayst. 

Miranda. But that I do not. 

Prospero. Twelve year w since, Miranda, twelve year since, 
Thy father was the Duke of Milan and 
A prince of power. 35 

1 Loss. 2 Happened. 3 Served. 4 Our modern word abyss. 



14 SHAKESPEARE [act i 

Miranda. Sir, are not you my father? 

Prospero. Thy mother was a piece * of virtue, and 
She said thou wast my daughter; and thy father 
Was Duke of Milan; and his only heir 
And princess no worse issued." 5 

Miranda. O the heavens! 

What foul play had we, that we came from thence? 
Or blessed was 't we did? 

Prospero. Both, both, my girl; 

By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heav'd thence, 10 

But blessedly holp " hither. 

Miranda. O, my heart bleeds 

To think o' the teen that I have turn'd you to," 
Which is from my remembrance! Please you, farther. 

Prospero. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd Antonio, — 15 
I pray thee, mark me, — that a brother should 
Be so perfidious! — he whom, next thyself, 
Of all the world I lov'd and to 2 him put 
The manage 3 of my state; as at that time 
Through all the signiories 4 it was the first, 20 

And Prospero the prime 5 duke, being so reputed 
In dignity, and, for the liberal arts, 
Without a parallel. Those being all my study, 
The government I cast upon my brother 

And to my state grew stranger, being transported 25 

And rapt in secret studies." Thy false uncle — 
Dost thou attend me? 

Miranda. Sir, most heedfully. 

Prospero. Being once perfected how to grant suits, 
How to deny them, who 6 to advance and who 30 

To trash for overtopping," new created 
The creatures that were mine, I say, or changed 'em, 
Or else new form'd 'em; having both the key 

1 Model. 2 Upon. 

3 Administration. 4 Territorial divisions. 

5 First in excellence and power. 6 Whom. 



scene ii] THE TEMPEST 15 

Of officer and office," set all hearts i' the state 

To what tune pleas'd his ear, that l now he was 

The ivy which had hid my princely trunk 

And suck'd my verdure 2 out on 't. — Thou attend'st not. 

Miranda. O, good sir, I do! 5 

Prospero. I pray thee, mark me. 

I, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated 
To closeness n and the bettering of my mind 
With that which, but by being so retir'd, 

O'er-priz'd all popular rate," in my false brother 10 

Aw T ak'd an evil nature; and my trust, 
Like a good parent," did beget of him 
A falsehood, in its contrary 3 as great 
As my trust was, which had indeed no limit, 
A confidence sans 4 bound. He being thus lorded, 5 15 

Not only with what my revenue yielded 
But what my power might else exact — like one 
Who having unto truth, by telling of it, 
Made such a sinner of his memory 

To credit his own lie n — he did believe 20 

He was indeed the duke, out o' the substitution n 
And executing the outward face n of royalty 
With all prerogative; hence his ambition 
Growing, — dost thou hear? 

Miranda. Your tale, sir, would cure deafness. 

Prospero. To have no screen between this part he play'd 
And him he play'd it for, n he needs will be 
Absolute Milan. Me, 6 poor man! — my library 
Was dukedom large enough. Of temporal royalties n 
He thinks me now incapable; confederates 7 — 30 

So dry 8 he was for sway — wi' the King of Naples 
To give him annual tribute, do him homage, 
Subject his coronet n to his crown, and bend 

1 So that. 2 Life, vigor. 3 Opposite. 

4 Without. 5 Given the dignity of a lord. 6 For me. 

7 Forms a league with. 8 Thirsty. 



16 SHAKESPEARE [act i 

The dukedom yet unbow'd — alas, poor Milan! — 
To most ignoble stooping. 

Miranda. O the heavens! 

Prospero. Mark his condition and the event"; then tell me 
If this might be a brother. 5 

Miranda. I should sin 

To think but x nobly of my grandmother; 
Good 2 wombs have borne bad sons. 

Prospero. Now the condition. 

This King of Naples, being an enemy 10 

To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit, 
Which was that he, in lieu o' the premises," 
Of homage and I know not how much tribute, 
Should presently 3 extirpate me and mine 

Out of the dukedom, and confer fair Milan, 15 

With all the honors, on my brother; whereon, 
A treacherous army levied, one midnight 
Fated 4 to the purpose, did Antonio open 
The gates of Milan, and, i' the dead of darkness, 
The ministers for the purpose hurried thence 20 

Me and thy crying self. 

Miranda. Alack, for pity! 

I, not remembering how I cried out then, 
Will cry it o'er again; it is a hint 5 
That wrings 6 my eyes to 't. 25 

Prospero. Hear a little further, 

And then I'll bring thee to the present business 
Which now 's upon 's; without the which this story 
Were most impertinent." 

Miranda. Wherefore did they not 30 

That hour destroy us? 

Prospero. Well demanded, wench n ; 

My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durst not, 
So dear the love my people bore me, nor set 

1 Otherwise than. 2 Virtuous. 3 Immediately. 

4 Decreed by destiny. 5 Occasion, theme. 6 Forces. 



scene n] THE TEMPEST 17 

A mark so bloody on the business, but 

With colors fairer painted their foul ends. 

In few, 1 they hurried us aboard a bark, 

Bore us some leagues to sea, where they prepar'd 

A rotten carcass of a boat, not rigg'd, 5 

Nor tackle, 2 sail, nor mast; the very rats 

Instinctively have quit it." There they hoist n us, 

To cry to the sea that roar'd to us; to sigh 

To the winds, whose pity, sighing back again, 

Did us but loving wrong. 3 IO 

Miranda. Alack, what trouble 

Was I then to you! 
Prospero. O, a cherubin 

Thou wast that did preserve me! Thou didst smile, 

Infused 4 with a fortitude from heaven, 15 

When I have deck'd n the sea with drops full salt, 
Under my burthen groan'd; which rais'd in me 
An undergoing stomach n to bear up 
Against what should ensue. 

Miranda. How came we ashore? 20 

Prospero. By Providence divine. 
Some food we had and some fresh water that 
A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo, 
Out of his charity, who being then appointed 
Master of this design, did give us, with 25 

Rich garments, linens, stuffs, and necessaries, 
Which since have steaded much." So, of his gentleness, 5 
Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me, 
From mine own library, with volumes that 
I prize above my dukedom. 30 

Miranda. Would I might 

But ever 6 see that man! 
^ Prospero. Now I arise. — 

Sit still and hear the last of our sea-sorrow. 
1 In few won's; briefly. 2 R op es. 3 Harm. 

4 Imbued. 5 Kindness. 6 But at any time. 



1 8 SHAKESPEARE [act i 

Here in this island we arriv'd; and here 
Have I, thy schoolmaster, made thee more profit 
Than other princess can that have more time 
For vainer hours and tutors not so careful. n 

Miranda. Heavens thank you for 't! And now, I pray you, 
sir, 6 

For still 'tis beating in my mind, your reason 
For raising this sea-storm? 

Prospero. Know thus far forth w : 

By accident most strange, bountiful Fortune, 10 

Now my dear lady, hath mine enemies 
Brought to this shore; and by my prescience x 
I find my zenith n doth depend upon 
A most auspicious star, whose influence w 

If now I court not but omit, my fortunes 15 

Will ever after droop. Here cease more questions. 
Thou art inclined to sleep; 'tis a good dullness," 
And give it way. — I know thou canst not choose. — 

[Miranda sleeps] 
Come away, 2 servant, come! I am ready now; 
Approach, my Ariel, come! 20 

Enter Ariel 

Ariel. All hail, great master! grave sir, hail! I come 
To answer thy best pleasure; be 't to fly, 
To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride 
On the curl'd clouds, to thy strong bidding task 
Ariel and all his quality." 25 

Prospero. Hast thou, spirit, 

Perform'd to point the tempest that I bade thee n ? 

Ariel. To every article. 
I boarded the king's ship; now on the beak, 3 
Nov/ in the waist, 4 the deck, in every cabin, 30 

I flam'd amazement w ; sometime I'd divide, 

1 Foreknowledge. 2 Come here. 

3 Pointed prow of the ship. 4 The middle of the ship. 



scene n] THE TEMPEST T g 

And burn in many places; on the topmast, 

The yards, and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly, 1 

Then meet and join. Jove's n lightnings, the precursors 

O' the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary 2 

And sight-outrunning n were not; the fire and cracks 3 5 

Of sulphurous roaring the most mighty Neptune n 

Seem to besiege and make his bold waves tremble, 

Yea, his dread trident shake. 

Prospero. My brave 4 spirit! 

Who was so firm, so constant, 5 that this coil 6 10 

Would not infect his reason? 

Ariel Not a soul 

But felt a fever of the mad n and play'd 
Some tricks of desperation. All but mariners 
Plung'd in the foaming brine and quit the vessel, 15 

Then all afire with me: the king's son, Ferdinand, 
With hair up-staring, 7 — then like reeds, not hair, — 
Was the first man that leap'd; cried, 'Hell is empty, 
And all the devils are here.' 

Prospero, Why, that's my spirit! 20 

But was not this nigh shore? 
Ariel. Close by, my master. 

Prospero. But are they, Ariel, safe? 
Ariel. N ot a na j r p er ish'd, 

On their sustaining n garments not a blemish, 25 

But fresher than before; and, as thou bad'st me, 

In troops I have dispers'd them 'bout the isle. 

The king's son have I landed by himself, 

Whom I left cooling of the air with sighs 

In an odd angle n of the isle, and sitting, 30 

His arms in this sad knot." 
Prospero. Of the king's ship 

The mariners, say how thou hast dispos'd, 

And all the rest o' the fleet. 

1 Separately. 2 Instantaneous. 3 Peals of thunder. < Gallant 
5 Unshaken, self-possessed. « Turmoil. » Standing on end. 



20 SHAKESPEARE [act i 

Ariel. Safely in harbor 

Is the king's ship; in the deep nook, where once 
Thou calPdst me up at midnight to fetch dew 
From the still-vex'd Bermoothes," there she's hid; 
The mariners all under hatches stow'd, 5 

Who, with a charm join'd to their suffer'd labor," 
I have left asleep ; and for the rest o' the fleet, 
Which I dispers'd, they all have met again 
And are upon the Mediterranean flote, 1 

Bound sadly home for Naples, 10 

Supposing that they saw the king's ship wrack'd 
And his great person perish. 

Prospero. Ariel, thy charge 

Exactly is perform'd, but there's more work. 
What is the time o' the day? 15 

Ariel. Past the mid season. 

Prospero. At least two glasses"; the time 'twixt six and 
now 
Must by us both be spent most preciously. 

Ariel. Is there more toil? Since thou dost give me pains, 2 20 
Let me remember 3 thee what thou hast promis'd, 
Which is not yet perform'd me. 4 

Prospero. How now? moody? 

What is 't thou canst demand? 

Ariel. My liberty. 25 

Prospero. Before the time be out? no more! 

Ariel. I prithee, 

Remember I have done thee worthy service, 
Told thee no lies, made no mistakings, 5 serv'd 
Without or grudge or grumblings. Thou didst promise 30 

To bate 6 me a full year. • 

Prospero. Dost thou forget 

From what a torment I did free thee? 

Ariel. No. 

1 Flood, sea. 2 Tasks to do. 3 Remind. 

4 For me. 5 Mistakes. 6 Deduct, or remit. 



scene n] THE TEMPEST 21 

Prospero. Thou dost; and think'st it much to tread the ooze n 
Of the salt deep, 

To run upon the sharp wind of the north, 
To do me business in the veins o' the earth 
When it is bak'd l with frost. 5 

Ariel. I do not, sir. 

Prospero. Thou liest, malignant thing! Hast thou forgot 
The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy 2 
Was grown into a hoop? hast thou forgot her? 

Ariel. No, sir. 10 

Prospero. Thou hast. Where was she born? speak; tell 

me. 

Ariel. Sir, in Argier.* 

Prospero. O, was she so? I must 

Once in a month recount what thou hast been, 15 

Which thou forget'st. This damn'd witch Sycorax, 
For mischiefs manifold and sorceries terrible 
To enter human hearing, from Argier, 
Thou know'st, was banish'd; for one thing she did 
They would not take her life. Is not this true? 20 

Ariel. Ay, sir. 

Prospero. This blue-eyed hag n was hither brought with child, 
And here was left by the sailors. Thou, my slave, 
As thou report'st thyself, wast then her servant; 
And, for 3 thou wast a spirit too delicate 25 

To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands, 
Refusing her grand hests, 4 she did confine thee, 
By help of her more potent ministers, 
And in her most unmitigable 5 rage, 

Into a cloven pine, within which rift 30 

Imprisoned thou^lidst painfully remain 
A dozen years; within which space she died 
And left thee there, where thou didst vent thy groans 
As fast as mill-wheels strike. Then was this island — 
Save for the son that she did litter here, 35 

1 Hardened. 2 Malice. 3 Because. 4 Behests, commands. 5 Implacable. 



22 SHAKESPEARE [act i 

A freckled whelp, hag-born — not honor'd with 
A human shape. 

Ariel. Yes, Caliban her son. 

Prospero. Dull thing," I say so; he, that Caliban 
Whom now I keep in service. Thou best know'st 5 

What torment I did find thee in; thy groans 
Did make wolves howl, and penetrate the breasts 
Of ever-angry bears. It was a torment 
To lay upon the damn'd, which Sycorax 

Could not again undo; it was mine art, 10 

When I arriv'd and heard thee, that made gape 
The pine and let thee out. 

Ariel. I thank thee, master. 

Prospero. If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak 
And peg thee in his knotty entrails till 15 

Thou hast howl'd away twelve winters. 

Ariel. Pardon, master; 

I will be correspondent l to command 
And do my spriting n gently. 

Prospero. Do so, and after two days 20 

I will discharge thee. 

Ariel. That's my noble master! 

What shall I do? say what; what shall I do? 

Prospero. Go make thyself like a nymph o' the sea; be subject 
To no sight but thine and mine, invisible 25 

To every eyeball else. Go, take this shape 
And hither come in 't; go, hence with diligence! — 

[Exit Ariel] 
Awake, dear heart, awake! thou hast slept well; 
Awake! 

Miranda. The strangeness of your story put 30 

Heaviness 2 in me. 

Prospero. Shake it off. Come on; 

We'll visit Caliban my slave, who never 
Yields us kind answer. 

1 Submissive, obedient. 2 Sleepiness. 



scene h] THE TEMPEST 23 

Miranda. 'Tis a villain, sir, 

I do not love to look on. 

Prospero. But, as 't is, 

We cannot miss l him; he does make our fire, 
Fetch in our wood, and serves in offices 5 

That profit us. — What, ho! slave! Caliban! 
Thou earth, thou! speak. 

Caliban. [Within] There's wood enough within. 

Prospero. Come forth, I say! there's other business for thee; 
Come, thou tortoise! when? — 10 

Enter Ariel, like a water-nymph 

Fine apparition ! My quaint 2 Ariel, 
Hark in thine ear. 

Ariel. My lord, it shall be done. [Exit] 

Prospero. Thou poisonous slave, come forth! 

Enter Caliban 

Caliban. As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd 15 

With raven's feather from unwholesome fen 
Drop on you both! a south-west n blow on ye 
And blister you all o'er! 

Prospero. For this, be sure, to-night thou shalt have cramps, 
Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up; urchins 3 20 

Shall, for that vast of night that they may work," 
All exercise on thee; thou shalt be pinch'd 
As thick as honeycomb, each pinch more stinging 
Than bees that made 'em. 

Caliban. I must eat my dinner. 25 

This island 's mine, by Sycorax my mother, 
Which thou tak'st from me. When thou earnest first 
Thou strok'dst me and mad'st much of me, wouldst give me 
Water with berries in 't, and teach me how 
To name the bigger light, and how the less, 30 

1 Do without. 2 Pretty. 3 Goblins, evil fairies. 



24 SHAKESPEARE [act i 

That burn by day and night; and then I lov'd thee, 

And show'd thee all the qualities n o' the isle, 

The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place and fertile. 

Cursed be I that did so! All the charms 

Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you! 5 

For I am all the subjects that you have, 

Which n first was mine own king; and here you sty l me 

In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me 

The rest o' the island. 

Prospero. Thou most lying slave, 10 

Whom stripes may move, not kindness! I have us'd thee, 
Filth as thou art, with human care, and lodg'd thee 
In mine own cell till thou didst seek to violate 
The honor of my child. 

Caliban. O ho, O ho! would 't had been done! 

Thou didst prevent me; I had peopled else 16 

This isle with Calibans. 

Prospero. Abhorred slave, 

Which any print of goodness wilt not take, 
Being capable of n all ill! I pitied thee, 20 

Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour 
One thing or other; when thou didst not, savage, 
Know thine own meaning," but wouldst gabble like 
A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes 
With words that made them known. But thy vile race, 2 25 
Though thou didst learn, had that in 't which good natures 
Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou 
Deservedly confin'd into this rock, 
Who hadst deserv'd more than a prison. 

Caliban. You taught me language; and my profit on 't 30 
Is, I know how to curse. The red plague n rid 3 you 
For learning me n your language ! 

Prospero. Hag-seefl, hence! 

Fetch us in fuel; and be quick, thou'rt 4 best, 

1 Keep as in a sty. 2 Nature; in the sense of inherited nature. 

3 Destroy. 4 Thou wert. 



scene ii] THE TEMPEST 25 

To answer other business. Shrug'st thou, malice? l 

If thou neglect'st, or dost unwillingly 

What I command, I'll rack thee with old n cramps, 

Fill all thy bones with aches," make thee roar, 

That beasts shall tremble at thy din. 5 

Caliban. No, pray thee. 

[Aside] I must obey; his art is of such power 
It would control 2 my dam's god, Setebos," 
And make a vassal of him. 

Prospero. So, slave; hence! [Exit Caliban] 

Enter Ferdinand, and Ariel {invisible) n playing and singing 

Ariel's Song 

Come unto these yellow sands, 11 

And then take hands. 
Curtsied when you have, and kiss'd 

The wild waves whist" 
Foot it featly 3 here and there; 15 

And, sweet sprites, the burthen 4 bear. 

Hark, hark! 
[Burthen, dispersedly, within." Bow-wow] 

The watch-dogs bark. 
[Burthen, within. Bow-wow] 20 

Hark, harkl I hear 

The strain of strutting chanticleer 

Cry, Cock-a-diddle-dow. 

Ferdinand. Where should this music be? i' the air or the 
earth? — 25 

It sounds no more; — and, sure, it waits upon n 
Some god o' the island. Sitting on a bank, 
Weeping again the king my father's wrack, 
This music crept by me upon the waters, 

1 Malicious thing. 2 Overpower, be superior to. 

3 Neatly, gracefully. 4 Refrain, chorus. 



26 SHAKESPEARE [act i 

Allaying both their fury and my passion l 
With its sweet air; thence I have follow'd it, 
Or it hath drawn me rather. But 'tis gone. — 
No, it begins again. 

Ariel's Song 
Full fathom five thy father lies; 5 

Of his bones are coral made; 
Those are pearls that were his eyes. 

Nothing of him that doth fade, 
But doth suffer a sea-change 

Into something rich and strange! 1 10 

Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell — 
[Burthen, within. Ding-dong] 
Hark! now I hear them — Ding-dong, bell. 

Ferdinand. The ditty does remember 2 my drown 'd father. 
This is no mortal business, nor no sound 15 

That the earth owes. 3 — I hear it now above me. 

Prospero. The fringed curtains of thine eye advance," 
And say what thou seest yond. 

Miranda. What is 't? a spirit? 

Lord, how it looks about! Believe me, sir, 20 

It carries a brave 4 form. But 't is a spirit. 

Prospero. No, wench; 5 it eats and sleeps and hath such senses 
As we have — such. This gallant which thou seest 
Was in the wrack; and, but 6 he's something 7 stain'd 
With grief that's beauty's canker," thou mightst call him 25 
A goodly person. He hath lost his fellows, 8 
And strays about to find 'em. 

Miranda. I might call him 

A thing divine, for nothing natural 
I ever saw so noble. 30 

Prospero. [Aside] It goes on, n I see, 

1 Sorrow. 2 Mention; perhaps in the sense of commemorate. 

3 Possesses; that belongs to the earth. 4 See footnote 1 to page 12. 

5 See page 16-, line 32, and note. 6 Except that. 

7 Somewhat. 8 Companions. 



scene n] THE TEMPEST 27 

As my soul prompts it. — Spirit, fine spirit! I'll free thee 
Within two days for this. 

Ferdinand. Most sure, the goddess 

On whom these airs attend! — Vouchsafe my prayer 
May know if you remain l upon this island, 5 

And that you will some good instruction give 
How I may bear me here; my prime 2 request, 
Which I do last pronounce, is, O you wonder! n 
If you be maid or no? 

Miranda. No wonder, sir, 10 

But certainly a maid. 

Ferdinand. My language! heavens! — 

I am the best of them that speak this speech, 
Were I but where 'tis spoken. 

Prospero. How! the best? 15 

What wert thou if the King of Naples heard thee? 

Ferdinand. A single n thing, as I am now, that winders 
To hear thee speak of Naples. He does hear me, 
And that he does I weep; myself am Naples, 
Who with mine eyes, never since at ebb, n beheld 20 

The king my father wrack'd. 

Miranda. Alack, for mercy ! 

Ferdinand. Yes, faith, and all his lords; the Duke of Milan 
And his brave son n being tw T ain. 

Prospero. [Aside] The Duke of Milan 3 25 

And his more braver n daughter could control 4 thee, 
If now 't were fit to do 't. — At the first sight 
They have chang'd eyes." — Delicate Ariel, 
I'll set thee free for this. — [To him] A word, good sir; 
I fear you have done yourself some wrong; n a word. 30 

Miranda. Why speaks my father so ungently? This 
Is the third man that e'er I saw, the first 
That e'er I sighed for; pity move my father 
To be inclin'd my way! 

1 Dwell. 2 Chief, most important. 

3 Prospero. 4 Confute, contradict. 



28 SHAKESPEARE [act i 

Ferdinand, O, if a virgin, 

And your affection not gone forth, I'll make you 
The Queen of Naples. 

Prospero. Soft, 1 sir! one word more. — 

[Aside] They are both in either's powers; but this swift business 
I must uneasy 2 make, lest too light winning 6 

Make the prize light. — [To him] One word more; I charge thee 
That thou attend 3 me. Thou dost here usurp 
The name thou owest 4 not, and hast put thyself 
Upon this island as a spy, to win it 10 

From me, the lord on 't. 

Ferdinand, No, as I am a man. 

Miranda. There's nothing ill 5 can dwell in such a temple; 
If the ill spirit have so fair a house, 
Good things will strive to dwell with 't. 15 

Prospero. [To Ferdinand] Follow me. — 

Speak not you for him; he's a traitor. — Come; 
I'll manacle thy neck and feet together; 
Sea- water shalt thou drink; thy food shall be 
The fresh-brook muscles, wither'd roots, and husks 20 

Wherein the acorn cradled. Follow. 

Ferdinand. No; 

I will resist such entertainment 6 till 
Mine enemy has more power. 

[He draws, and is charmed from moving] 

Miranda. O dear father! 25 

Make not too rash a trial of him, for 
He's gentle and not fearful." 

Prospero. What! I say, 

My foot my tutor? n — Put thy sword up, traitor, 
Who mak'st a show, but dar'st not strike, thy conscience 30 
Is so possess'd with guilt; come from thy ward, 7 
For I can here disarm thee with this stick 
And make thy weapon drop. 

1 Stop. 2 Difficult. 3 Listen to me. 4 Cf. footnote 3, page 26. 
5 Evil. 6 Bad treatment. 7 Guard, posture of defence. 



scene ii] THE TEMPEST 29 

Miranda. Beseech you, father! 

Prospero. Hence! hang not on my garments. 

Miranda. Sir, have pity; 

I'll be his surety. 

Prospero. Silence! one word more 5 

Shall make me chide thee, if not hate thee! What! 
An advocate for an impostor! hush! 
Thou think'st there is no more such shapes as he, 
Having seen but him and Caliban; foolish wench! 
To the most of men l this is a Caliban, 10 

And they to him are angels. 

Miranda. My affections 2 

Are, then, most humble; I have no ambition 
To see a goodlier man. 

Prospero. [To Ferdinand] Come on; obey. 15 

Thy nerves 3 are in their infancy again 
And have no vigor in them. 

Ferdinand. So they are; 

My spirits, as in a dream, are all bound up. 
My father's loss, the weakness which I feel, 20 

The wrack of all my friends, nor 4 this man's threats 
To whom I am subdued, are but light to me, 
Might I but through my prison once a day 
Behold this maid. All corners else o' the earth 
Let liberty make use of; space enough 25 

Have I in such a prison. 

Prospero. [Aside] It works. — [To Ferdinand] Come 

on. — 
Thou hast done well, fine Ariel! — Follow me. — 
[To Ariel] Hark what thou else shalt do me. 30 

Miranda. Be of comfort. 

My father's of a better nature, sir, 
Than he appears by speech; this is unwonted 
Which now came from him. 

1 Compared with most men. 2 Inclinations. 

3 Muscles, sinews. 4 For nor substitute or or and. 



30 SHAKESPEARE [act ii 

Prospero. [To Ariel] Thou shalt be as free 

As mountain winds; but then exactly do 
All points of my command. 

Ariel. To the syllable. 

Prospero. Come, follow. Speak not for him. 5 

[Exeunt] 

ACT II 

Scene I. Another Part of the Island 

Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Gonzalo, Adrian, Fran- 
cisco, and others 

Gonzalo. Beseech you, sir, be merry; you have cause — 
So have we all — of joy, for our escape 
Is much beyond our loss. Our hint l of woe 
Is common: every day, some sailor's wife, 
The masters of some merchant, 2 and the merchant, 10 

Have just 3 our theme of woe; but for the miracle — 
I mean our preservation — few in millions 
Can speak like us. Then wisely, good sir, weigh 
Our sorrow with our comfort. 

Alonso. Prithee, peace. 15 

Sebastian. He receives comfort like cold porridge. 

Antonio. The visitor 4 will not give him o'er so. 

Sebastian. Look, he's winding up the watch of his wit; by and 
by it will strike." 

Gonzalo. Sir, — 20 

Sebastian. One; tell. 5 

Gonzalo. When every grief is entertain'd that's offer'd," 
Comes to the entertainer — 

Sebastian. A dollar. 

Gonzalo. Dolor n comes to him, indeed; you have spoken truer 
than you purpos'd. 26 

1 Occasion. 2 A ship with a cargo of merchandise. 

3 Precisely. 4 Spiritual comforter. 5 Count. 



scene i] THE TEMPEST 31 

Sebastian. You have taken it wiselier than I meant you should. 

Gonzalo. Therefore, my lord, — 

Antonio. Fie, what a spendthrift is he of his tongue! 

Alonso. I prithee, spare. 

Gonzalo. Well, I have done; but yet — 5 

Sebastian. He will be talking. 

Antonio. Which, of he or Adrian," for a good wager, first be- 
gins to crow? 

Sebastian. The old cock. 

Antonio. The cockerel. 10 

Sebastian. Done. The wager? 

Antonio. A laughter. 

Sebastian. A match! 

Adrian. Though this island seem to be desert, — 

Antonio. Ha, ha, ha! n 15 

Sebastian. So, you're paid. 

Adrian. Uninhabitable, and almost inaccessible, — 

Sebastian. Yet, — 

Adrian. Yet, — 

Antonio. He could not miss 't. n 20 

Adrian. It must needs be of subtle, tender, and delicate 
temperance. 

Antonio. Temperance n was a delicate wench. 

Sebastian. Ay, and a subtle; as he most learnedly deliver 'd. 1 

Adrian. The air breathes upon us here most sweetly. 25 

Sebastian. As if it had lungs, and rotten ones. 

Antonio. Or as 't were perfumed by a fen. 

Gonzalo. Here is everything advantageous to life* 

Antonio. True; save means to live. 

Sebastian. Of that there's none, or little. 30 

Gonzalo. How lush and lusty the grass looks! how green! 

Antonio. The ground, indeed, is tawny. 

Sebastian. With an eye 2 of green in 't. 

Antonio. He misses not much." 

Sebastian. No; he doth but mistake the truth totally. 35 

1 Declared. 2 Tinge. 



32 SHAKESPEARE [act ii 

Gonzalo. But the rarity ! of it is, — which is indeed almost 
beyond credit, — 

Sebastian. As many vouched rarities are. 

Gonzalo. That our garments, being, as they were, drenched 
in the sea, hold, notwithstanding, their freshness and glosses, 2 
being rather new-dyed than stained with salt water. 6 

Antonio. If but one of his pockets could speak, would it not 
say he lies? 

Sebastian. Ay, or very falsely pocket up his report. 

Gonzalo. Methinks our garments are now as fresh as when we 
put them on first in Afric, at the marriage of the king's fair 
daughter Claribel to the King of Tunis. 12 

Sebastian. 'T was a sweet n marriage, and we prosper well in 
our return. 

Adrian. Tunis was never graced before with such a paragon 
to 3 their queen. 16 

Gonzalo. Not since widow Dido's n time. 

Antonio. Widow! a plague o' that! How came that widow in? 
Widow Dido! 

Sebastian. What if he had said widower ^Eneas n too? Good 
Lord, how you take it! 21 

Adrian. Widow Dido, said you? you make me study of that; 
she was of Carthage, not of Tunis. 

Gonzalo. This Tunis, sir, was Carthage." 

Adrian. Carthage? 25 

Gonzalo. I assure you, Carthage. 

Antonio. His word is more than the miraculous harp. n 

Sebastian. He hath raised the wall, and houses too. 

Antonio. What impossible matter will he make easy next? 

Sebastian. I think he will carry this island home in his pocket, 
and give it his son for an apple. 31 

Antonio. And, sowing the kernels of it in the sea, bring forth 
more islands. 

Gonzalo. Ay? n 

Antonio. Why, in good time. 

1 Wonder; wonderful because it rarely happens. 2 Gloss, lustre. 3 For. 



scene i] THE TEMPEST ^ 

Gonzalo. Sir, we were talking that our garments seem now as 
fresh as when we were at Tunis at the marriage of your daughter 
who is now queen. 
Antonio. And the rarest that e'er came there. 
Sebastian. Bate, 1 1 beseech you, widow Dido. 5 

Antonio. O, widow Dido! ay, widow Dido. 
Gonzalo. Is not, sir, my doublet as fresh as the first day I wore 
it? I mean, in a sort." 
Antonio. That sort was well fished for. 

Gonzalo. When I wore it at your daughter's marriage? 10 
Alonso. You cram these words into mine ears against 
The stomach of my sense." Would I had never 
Married my daughter there! for, coming thence, 
My son is lost; and, in my rate, 2 she too, 

Who is so far from Italy remov'd !j 

I ne'er again shall see her. — O thou mine heir 
Of Naples and of Milan, what strange fish 
Hath made his meal on thee? 

Francisco. Sir, he may live. 

I saw him beat the surges under him 20 

And ride upon their backs; he trod the water, 
Whose enmity he flung aside, and breasted 
The surge most swoln that met him; his bold head 
'Bove the contentious waves he kept, and oar'd 
Himself with his good arms in lusty stroke 25 

To the shore, 3 that o'er his n wave-worn basis ■ bow'd, 
As 4 stooping to relieve him. I not doubt 
He came alive to land. 
Alonso. No, no, he's gone. 

Sebastian. Sir, you may thank yourself for this great loss, 
That would not bless our Europe with your daughter, 31 

But rather lose her to an African; 
Where she at least is banish'd from your eye, 
Who n hath cause to wet the grief on 't. 
Alonso. Prithee, peace. 35 

1 Except. 2 Estimation. 3 The crags and cliffs on the shore. 4 As if. 



34 SHAKESPEARE [act n 

Sebastian. You were kneel'd to, and importun'd n otherwise, 
By all of us; and the fair soul herself 
Weigh'd, between loathness and obedience," at 
Which end o' the beam she'd bow\ We have lost your son, 
I fear, forever; Milan and Naples have 5 

Moe * widows in them of this business' making 
Than we bring men to comfort them; the fault's 
Your own. 

Alonso. So is the dear'st n o' the loss. 

Gonzalo. My lord Sebastian, 

The truth you speak doth lack some gentleness 1 1 

And time to speak it in; w you rub the sore 
When you should bring the plaster. 

Sebastian. Very w T ell. 

Antonio. And most chirurgeonly. 2 15 

Gonzalo. It is foul weather in us all, good sir, 
When you are cloudy. 

Sebastian. Foul weather? 

Antonio. Very foul. 

Gonzalo. Had I plantation 3 of this isle, my lord, — 20 

Antonio. He'd sow't with nettle-seed. 

Sebastian. Or docks, or mallows. 

Gonzalo. And were the king on 't, what would I do? 

Sebastian. Scape being drunk, for want of wine. 

Gonzalo. V the commonwealth I would by contraries 25 

Execute all things; for no kind of traffic 
Would I admit; no name of magistrate; 
Letters should not be known; riches, poverty, 
And use of service, none; contract, succession, 4 
Bourn, 5 bound 6 of land, tilth, 7 vineyard, none; 30 

No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil; 
No occupation; all men idle, all; 

1 More. 2 In the manner of a surgeon. 

3 Colonization. Antonio and Sebastian, however, use the word in the sense 
of planting. 

4 Inheriting of property. 5 Boundary 6 Inclosure. 7 Tillage. 



scene i] THE TEMPEST 35 

And women too, but innocent and pure; 
No sovereignty; — 

Sebastian. Yet he would be king on 't. 

Antonio. The latter end of his commonwealth forgets the 
beginning. 5 

Gonzalo. All things in common nature should produce 
Without sweat or endeavor; treason, felony, 
Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engine, 1 
Would I not have; but nature should bring forth, 
Of it 2 own kind, all foison, 8 all abundance, 10 

To feed my innocent people. 

Sebastian. No marrying 'mong his subjects? 

Antonio. None, man; all idle, whores and knaves. 

Gonzalo. I w 7 ould with such perfection govern, sir, 
To excel the golden age." 15 

Sebastian. Save n his majesty! 

Antonio. Long live Gonzalo! 

Gonzalo. And, — do you mark me, sir? — 

Alonso. Prithee, no more; thou dost talk nothing to me. 19 

Gonzalo. I do well believe your highness, and did it to minister 
occasion n to these gentlemen, who are of such sensible 4 and 
nimble lungs that they always use to laugh at nothing. 

Antonio. 'T was you w r e laughed at. 

Gonzalo. Who, in this kind of merry fooling, am nothing to 5 
you; so you may continue, and laugh at nothing still. 25 

Antonio. What a blow was there given! 

Sebastian. An 6 it had not fallen flat-long." 

Gonzalo. You are gentlemen of brave mettle; n you would lift 
the moon out of her sphere, if she would continue in it five weeks 
without changing. 30 

Enter Ariel (invisible) playing solemn music 

Sebastian. We would so, and then go a bat-fowling." 
Antonio. Nay, good my lord, be not angry. 

1 Implement of war. 2 Its. See page 33, line 26, and note. 

3 Abundant harvest. 4 Sensitive. 5 Compared to. 6 If. 



36 SHAKESPEARE [act ii 

Gonzalo. No, I warrant you; I will not adventure my discre- 
tion n so weakly. Will you laugh me asleep, for I am very 
heavy? 

Antonio. Go sleep, and hear us. w 

[All sleep except Alonso, Sebastian, and Antonio] 

Alonso. What, all so soon asleep! I wish mine eyes 5 

Would, with themselves, shut up my thoughts; I find 
They are inclin'd to do so. 

Sebastian. Please you, sir, 

Do not omit the heavy offer n of it. 

It seldom visits sorrow; when it doth, 10 

It is a comforter. 

Antonio. We two, my lord, 

Will guard your person while you take your r'est 
And watch your safety. 

Alonso. Thank you. — Wondrous heavy. 15 

[Alonso sleeps. Exit Ariel] 

Sebastian. What a strange drowsiness possesses them! 

Antonio. It is the quality 1 o' the climate. 

Sebastian. Why 

Doth it not then our eyelids sink? I find not 
Myself dispos'd to sleep. 20 

Antonio. Nor I; my spirits are nimble. 

They fell together all, as 2 by consent; 3 
They dropp'd, as 2 by a thunder-stroke. What might, 
Worthy Sebastian? n — O, what might? — No more. — 
And yet methinks I see it in thy face, 25 

What thou shouldst be; the occasion speaks n thee, and 
My strong imagination sees a crown 
Dropping upon thy head. 

Sebastian. What, art thou waking? 

Antonio. Do you not hear me speak? 30 

Sebastian. I do; and surely 

It is a sleepy language, and thou speak'st 
Out of thy sleep. What is it thou didst say? 

1 Nature. 2 As if. 3 Concert, agreement. 



scene i] THE TEMPEST 37 

This is a strange repose, to be asleep 

With eyes wide open; standing, speaking, moving, 

And yet so fast asleep. 

Antonio. Noble Sebastian, 

Thou let'st thy fortune sleep — die, rather; winkst l 5 

Whiles thou art waking. 

Sebastian. Thou dost snore distinctly; 

There's meaning in thy snores. 

Antonio. I am more serious than my custom; you 
Must be so too, if heed me, which to do 10 

Trebles thee o'er." 

Sebastian. Well, I am standing water." 

Antonio. I'll teach you how to flow. 

Sebastian. Do so; to ebb 

Hereditary sloth instructs me. 15 

Antonio. O, 

If you but knew " how you the purpose cherish 
Whiles thus you mock it ! how, in stripping it, 
You more invest 2 it! Ebbing men, indeed, 
Most often do so near the bottom run 20 

By their own fear or sloth. 

Sebastian. Prithee, say on; 

The setting 3 of thine eye and cheek proclaim 
A matter from thee, and a birth, indeed, 
Which throes 4 thee much to yield. 25 

Antonio. Thus, sir: 

Although this lord of weak remembrance," — this, 
Who shall be of as little memory 

When he is earth'd, 5 — hath here almost persuaded, — 
For he's a spirit of persuasion, only 30 

Professes to persuade," — the king his son's alive, 
'T is as impossible that he's undrown'd 
As he that sleeps here swims. 

Sebastian. I have no hope 

That he's undrown'd. 35 

1 Closest thy eyes. 2 Clothe. 3 Aspect, look. 4 Pains. 5 Buried. 



38 SHAKESPEARE [act ii 

Antonio. O, out of that no hope 

What great hope have you! no hope that way is 
Another way so high a hope that even 
Ambition can not pierce a wink l beyond, 
But doubts discovery there." Will you grant with me 5 

That Ferdinand is drown'd? 

Sebastian. He's gone. 

Antonio. Then, tell me, 

Who's the next heir of Naples? 

Sebastian. Claribel. 10 

Antonio. She that is Queen of Tunis; she that dwells 
Ten leagues beyond man's life; n she that from Naples 
Can have no note, 2 unless the sun were post, 3 — 
The man i' the moon's too slow — till new-born chins 
Be rough and razorable; she from whom n 15 

We all were sea-swallow'd, though some cast n again, 
And by that destiny to perform an act 
Whereof what's past is prologue, what to come 
In yours and my discharge. 

Sebastian. What stuff is this! How say you? 

'T is true, my brother's daughter's Queen of Tunis; 21 

So is she heir of Naples; 'twixt which regions 
There is some space. 

Antonio. A space whose every cubit 

Seems to cry out, 'How shall that Claribel 25 

Measure us 4 back to Naples? Keep 5 in Tunis, 
And let Sebastian wake.' Say, this were death 
That now hath seiz'd them; why, they were no worse 
Than now they are. There be that can rule Naples 
As well as he that sleeps, lords that can prate 30 

As amply and unnecessarily 
As this Gonzalo; I myself could make n 
A chough of as deep chat. O, that you bore 

1 The smallest distance. 2 Information. 

3 Messenger. 4 1, e., the cubits. 

5 Let her stay; keep her. 



scene i] THE TEMPEST 39 

The mind that I do! what a sleep were this 

For your advancement! Do you understand me? 

Sebastian. Methinks I do. 

Antonio. And how does your content 

Tender l your own good fortune? 5 

Sebastian. I remember 

You did supplant your brother Prospero. 

Antonio. True; 

And look how well my garments sit upon me, 
Much feater 2 than before. My brother's servants 10 

Were then my fellows, 3 now they are my men. 

Sebastian. But, for your conscience — 

Antonio. Ay, sir; where lies that? If 't were a kibe, 
'T would put me to my slipper; n but I feel not 
This deity in my bosom. Twenty consciences, 15 

That stand 'twixt me and Milan, candied 4 be they 
And melt, ere they molest! n Here lies your brother, 
No better than the earth he lies upon, 
If he were that which now he's like, that's dead; 
Whom I, with this obedient steel, three inches of it, 20 

Can lay to bed forever, whiles you, doing thus, 5 
To the perpetual wink n for aye might put 
This ancient morsel, this Sir Prudence," who 
Should not 6 upbraid our course. For 7 all the rest, 
They'll take suggestion 8 as a cat laps milk; 25 

They'll tell the clock n to any business that 
We say befits the hour. 

Sebastian. Thy case, dear friend, 

Shall be my precedent; as thou got'st Milan 
I'll come by Naples. Draw thy sword; one stroke 30 

Shall free thee from the tribute which thou pay'st, 
And I the king shall love thee. 

1 Regard. 2 Neater, more becomingly. 

3 Companions. 4 Congealed. 

5 Antonio makes a motion of stabbing with his sword. 

6 Would not then. 7 As for. 8 Temptation. 



40 SHAKESPEARE [act ii 

Antonio. Draw together; 

And when I rear my hand, do you the like, 
To fall it on Gonzalo. 

Sebastian. O, but one word. [They talk apart] 

Enter Ariel, with music and song 

Ariel. My master through his art foresees the danger 5 

That you, his friend, are in, and sends me forth, — 
For else his project dies, — to keep them 1 living. 

[Sings in Gonzalo's ear] 

While you here do snoring lie, 
Open-eyed conspiracy 

His time doth take! 1 10 

If of life you keep a care, 
Shake off slumber and beware; 

Awake! Awake! 

Antonio. Then let us both be sudden. 2 14 

Gonzalo. [Waking] Now, good angels 

Preserve the king! — [To Sebastian and Antonio] Why, how 
now? — [To Alonso] Ho, awake! — 

[To Sebastian and Antonio] Why are you drawn? wherefore 
this ghastly looking? 
Alonso. [Waking] What's the matter? 20 

Sebastian. Whiles we stood here securing 3 your repose, 

Even now, we heard a hollow 4 burst of bellowing 

Like bulls, or rather lions; did 't not wake you? 

It struck mine ear most terribly. 

Alonso. I heard nothing. 25 

Antonio. O, 't was a din to fright a monster's ear, 

To make an earthquake; sure, it was the roar 

Of a whole herd of lions. 

Alonso. Heard you this, Gonzalo? 

1 The remainder of the shipwrecked party. 2 Quick. 

3 Guarding. 4 Deep. 



scene h] THE TEMPEST 41 

Gonzalo. Upon mine honor, sir, I heard a hiunming, — 
And that a strange one too, — which did awake me. 
I shak'd you, sir, and cried; as mine eyes open'd 
I saw their weapons drawn; — there was a noise, 
That's verily. 1 'T is best we stand upon our guard, 5 

Or that we quit this place; let's draw our weapons. 

Alonso. Lead off this ground, and let's make further search 
For my poor son. 

Gonzalo. Heavens keep him from these beasts! 

For he is, sure, i' the island. 10 

Alonso. Lead away. 

Ariel. Prospero my lord shall know what I have done; 
So, king, go safely on to seek thy son. [Exeunt] 

Scene II. Another Part of the Island 

Enter Caliban, with a burthen of wood. A noise of thunder 

heard 

Caliban. All the infections that the sun sucks up 
From bogs, fens, flats, on Prosper fall and make him 15 

By inch-meal 2 a disease! His spirits hear me, 
And yet I needs must curse. But they'll nor pinch, 
Fright me with urchin-shows, 3 pitch me i' the mire, 
Nor lead me, like a firebrand, 4 in the dark 
Out of my way, unless he bid 'em: but 20 

For every trifle are they set upon me; 
Sometime 5 like apes, that mow 6 and chatter at me 
And after bite me; then like hedgehogs, which 
Lie tumbling in my barefoot way, and mount 
Their pricks at my footfall; sometime am I 25 

All wound with adders, who with cloven tongues 
Do hiss me into madness. — 

1 True. An adverb used as an adjective. 2 By inches. Cf . piece-meal. 
3 Apparitions of goblins. 4 Jack-o'-Lantern, Will-o'-the-Wisp. 

6 Sometimes. 6 Make faces. 



42 SHAKESPEARE [act ii 

Enter Trinculo 

Lo, now, lo! 
Here comes a spirit of his, and to torment me 
For bringing wood in slowly. I'll fall flat; 
Perchance he will not mind l me. 4 

Trinculo. Here's neither bush nor shrub, to bear off" any- 
weather at all, and another storm brewing; I hear it sing i' the 
wind. Yond same black cloud, yond huge one, looks like a foul 
bombard " that would shed his liquor. If it should thunder as it 
did before, I know not where to hide my head; yond same cloud 
cannot choose but fall by pailfuls. — What have we here? a man 
or a fish? dead or alive? A fish! he smells like a fish; a very 
ancient and fishlike smell; a kind of, not of the newest, Poor- 
John." A strange fish! Were I in England now, as once I w r as, 
and had but this fish painted," not a holiday fool there but would 
give a piece of silver. There would this monster make a man; " 
any strange beast there makes a man. When they will not give a 
doit 2 to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead 
Indian." Legged like a man! and his fins like arms! Warm o' 
my troth! " I do now let loose my opinion, hold it no longer; 
this is no fish, but an islander that hath lately suffered 3 by a 
thunderbolt. [Thunder] Alas, the storm is come again! my 
best way is to creep under his gaberdine;" there is no other 
shelter hereabout. Misery acquaints a man with strange bed- 
fellows. I will here shroud " till the dregs 4 of the storm be past. 

Enter Stephano, singing: a bottle in his hand 

Stephano. I shall no more to sea, to sea, 25 

Here shall I die ashore, — 

This is a very scurvy tune to sing at a man's funeral. 

Well, here's my comfort. [Drinks] 

1 Notice. 2 A coin of half a farthing value. 3 Suffered death. 

4 Trinculo still has the bombard of sack in his thoughts. 



scene n] THE TEMPEST 43 

[Sings] The master, the swabber, l the boatswain, and I, 
The gunner, and his mate, 
Lov'd Mall, Meg, and Marian, and Margery, 
But none of us car'd for Kate; 

For she had a tongue with a tang, 2 5 

Would cry to a sailor, Go hang! 
Then, to sea, boys, and let her go hang! 

This is a scurvy tune too; but here's my comfort. 

[Drinks] 

Caliban. Do not torment me! — O! 9 

Stephano. What's the matter? Have we devils here? Do you 
put tricks upon 's with savages and men of Ind, 3 ha? I have not 
scaped drowning to be afeard now of your four legs; for it hath 
been said, as proper 4 a man as ever went on four legs n cannot 
make him give ground; and it shall be said so again, while 
Stephano breathes at nostrils. 15 

Caliban. The spirit torments me ! — O ! 

Stephano. This is some monster of the isle with four legs, who 
hath got, as I take it, an ague. Where the devil should he learn n 
our language? I will give him some relief, if it be but for that. 
If I can recover 5 him, and keep him tame, and get to Naples 
with him, he's a present for any emperor that ever trod on neat's- 
leather * 22 

Caliban. Do not torment me, prithee; I'll bring my wood 
home faster. 

Stephano. He's in his fit now, and does not talk after the 
wisest. He shall taste of my bottle; if he have never drunk wine 
afore, it will go near to remove his fit. If I can recover him and 
keep him tame, I will not take too much for him; n he shall pay 
for him that hath him, and that soundly. 29 

Caliban. Thou dost me yet but little hurt; thou wilt 
anon, 6 I know it by thy trembling; n now Prosper works upon 
thee. 

1 One who mops the deck. 2 Sharp sound, sting. 3 India. 

4 Fine. 5 Restore. 6 Soon. 



44 SHAKESPEARE [act ii 

Stephano. Come on your ways; n open your mouth; here is 
that which will give language to you, cat. w Open your mouth; 
this will shake your shaking, I can tell you, and that soundly. 
You cannot tell who's your friend; open your chaps again. 

Trinculo*. I should know that voice. It should be — but he is 
drowned; and these are devils! — O, defend me! 6 

Stephano. Four legs and two voices! a most delicate monster! 
His forward voice, now, is to speak well of his friend; his back- 
ward voice is to utter foul speeches and to detract. If all the 
wine in my bottle will recover him, I will help his ague. Come. — 
Amen! n — I will pour some in thy other mouth. n 

Trinculo. Stephano. 

Stephano. Doth thy other mouth call me? Mercy, mercy! 
This is a devil, and no monster! I will leave him; I have no long 
spoon." 15 

Trinculo. Stephano! If thou beest Stephano, touch me, and 
speak to me; for I am Trinculo, — be not afeard, — thy good 
friend Trinculo. 18 

Stephano. If thou beest Trinculo, come forth. I'll pull thee 
by the lesser legs; if any be Trinculo's legs, these are they. — 
Thou art very l Trinculo indeed! How earnest thou to be the 
siege 2 of this moon-calf? n Can he vent Trinculos? 22 

Trinculo. I took him to be killed with a thunder-stroke. — 
But art thou not drowned, Stephano? I hope, now, thou 
art not drowned. Is the storm over-blown? I hid me under 
the dead moon-calf's gaberdine for fear of the storm. And 
art thou living, Stephano? O Stephano, two Neapolitans 
scaped? 28 

Stephano. Prithee, do not turn me about; my stomach is not 
constant." 

Caliban. These be fine things, an if they be not sprites. 
That's a brave god, and bears celestial liquor; 
I will kneel to him. 33 

Stephano. How didst thou scape? How earnest thou hither? 
swear, by this bottle, how thou earnest hither. I escaped upon a 

1 Real, true. 2 Excrement. 



scene n] THE TEMPEST 45 

butt ! of sack, which the sailors heaved o'erboard, by this bot- 
tle! — which I made of the bark of a tree with mine own hands, 
since I was cast ashore. 

Caliban. I'll swear, upon that bottle, to be thy true subject; 
For the liquor is not earthly. 5 

Stephano. Here; swear, then, how thou escapedst. 

Trinculo. Swam ashore, man, like a duck; I can swim like a 
duck, I'll be sworn. 

Stephano. Here, kiss the book." Though thou canst swim like 
a duck, thou art made like a goose. 10 

Trinculo. O Stephano, hast any more of this? 

Stephano. The whole butt, man; my cellar is in a rock by the 
sea-side, where my wine is hid. — How now, moon-calf! how 
does thine ague? 

Caliban. Hast thou not dropped from heaven? 15 

Stephano. Out o' the moon, I do assure thee; I was the man i' 
the moon when time was." 

Caliban. I have seen thee in her, and I do adore thee; 
My mistress show'd me thee, and thy dog, and thy bush. w 

Stephano. Come, swear to that; kiss the book. I will furnish 
it anon 2 with new contents; swear. 21 

Trinculo. By this good light, this is a very shallow monster! — 
I afeard of him! — A very weak monster! — The man i' the 
moon! — A most poor credulous monster! — Well drawn," 
monster, in good sooth! 25 

Caliban. I'll show thee every fertile inch o' the island; 
And I will kiss thy foot. I prithee, be my god. 

Trinculo. By this light, a most perfidious and drunken mon- 
ster! When's god's asleep, he'll rob his bottle. 

Caliban. I'll kiss thy foot; I'll swear myself thy subject. 

Stephano. Come on, then; down, and swear. 31 

Trinculo. I shall laugh myself to death at this puppy-headed 
monster. A most scurvy monster! I could find in my heart to 
beat him, — 
Stephano. Come, kiss. 35 

1 Large cask. 2 Soon. 



46 SHAKESPEARE [act ii 

Trinculo. But that the poor monster's in drink. 
An abominable monster! 

Caliban. I'll show thee the best springs; I'll pluck thee berries; 
I'll fish for thee, and get thee wood enough. 
A plague upon the tyrant that I serve! 5 

I'll bear him no more sticks, but follow thee, 
Thou wondrous man. 

Trinculo. A most ridiculous monster, to make a wonder of a 
poor drunkard! 

Caliban. I prithee, let me bring thee where crabs * grow; 10 
And I with my long nails will dig thee pig-nuts, w 
Show thee a jay's nest, and instruct thee how 
To snare the nimble marmoset. I'll bring thee 
To clustering filberts; and sometimes I'll get thee 
Young scamels n from the rock. Wilt thou go with me? 15 

Stephano. I prithee now, lead the way without any more 
talking. — Trinculo, the king and all our company else being 
drowned, we will inherit n here. — Here, bear my bottle. — 
Fellow Trinculo, we'll fill him by and by again. 19 

Caliban. [Sings drunkenly] Farewell, master; farewell, fare- 
well! 

Trinculo. A howling monster; a drunken monster! 

Caliban. No more dams Til make for fish; 
Nor fetch in firing 

At requiring; 25 

Nor scrape trenchering" nor wash dish. 
'Ban, 'Ban, Ca-caliban 
Has a new master; — get a new man. 

Freedom, heyday! heyday, freedom! freedom, heyday, freedom! 
Stephano. brave monster! Lead the way. 30 

[Exeunt] 
1 Crab apple. 



scene il THE TEMPEST 47 



ACT III 

Scene I. Before Prosperous Cell 

Enter Ferdinand, bearing a log 

Ferdinand. There be some sports are painful, and their labor 
Delight in them sets off; n some kinds of baseness 
Are nobly undergone, and most poor matters 
Point to rich ends." This my mean x task 
Would be as heavy 2 to me as odious, but 5 

The mistress which I serve quickens 3 what's dead 
And makes my labors pleasures. O, she is 
Ten times more gentle than her father's crabbed, 
And he's compos'd of harshness! I must remove 
Some thousands of these logs and pile them up, 10 

Upon a sore injunction." My sweet mistress 
Weeps when she sees me work, and says such baseness 
Had never like executor. 4 I forget; 
But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labors, 
Most busy, least when I do it." I5 

Enter Miranda, and Prospero at a distance 

Miranda. Alas! now, pray you, 

Work not so hard; I would the lightning had 
Burnt up those logs that you are enjoin'd to pile! 
Pray, set it down and rest you; when this burns 
'T will weep for having wearied you. My father 20 

Is hard at study; pray, now, rest yourself; 
He's safe n for these three hours. 

Ferdinand. O most dear mistress, 

The sun will set before I shall discharge 
What I must strive to do. 2 - 

1 Lowly. 2 Hardj burdensome. 3 Gives life to. 4 Performer. 



48 SHAKESPEARE [act hi 

Miranda. If you'll sit down, 

I'll bear your logs the while. Pray, give me that; 
I'll carry it to the pile. 

Ferdinand. No, precious creature; 

I had rather crack my sinews, 1 break my back, 5 

Than you should such dishonor undergo 
While I sit lazy by. 

Miranda. It would become me 

As well as it does you; and I should do it 

With much more ease, for my good will is to it, 10 

And yours it is against. 

Prospero. Poor worm, 2 thou art infected! 

This visitation n shows it. 

Miranda. You look wearily. 3 

Ferdinand. No, noble mistress; 't is fresh morning with me 
When you are by at night. I do beseech you, — 16 

Chiefly that I might set it in my prayers, — 
What is your name? 

Miranda. Miranda. — O my father, 

I have broke 4 your hest 5 to say so! 20 

Ferdinand. Admir'd 6 Miranda! 

Indeed the top 7 of admiration, worth 
What's dearest to the world! Full many a lady 
I have eyed with best regard/ 1 and many a time 
The harmony of their tongues hath into bondage 25 

Brought my too diligent ear. For several virtues 
Have I lik'd several 8 women, never any n 
With so full soul but some defect in her 
Did quarrel with the noblest grace 9 she owed 10 
And put it to the foil; n but you, O you, 30 

So perfect and so peerless, are created 
Of every creature's best! 

1 Muscles. 2 Creature, used in the sense of pity. 

3 Weary; an adverb for an adjective. 4 Broken. 

5 Command. 6 Admirable. 7 The highest degree. 

8 Different. 9 Excellence. 10 Possessed. 



scene i] THE TEMPEST 49 

Miranda. I do not know 

One of my sex, no woman's face remember, 
Save, from my glass, mine own; nor have I seen 
More that I may call men than you, good friend, 
And my dear father. How features l are abroad 5 

I am skilless 2 of; but, by my modesty, 
The jewel in my dower, I would not wish 
Any companion in the world but you, 
Nor can imagination form a shape, 

Besides yourself, to like of. w — But I prattle 10 

Something 3 too wildly, and my father's precepts 
I therein do forget. 

Ferdinand. I am, in my condition, 4 

A prince, Miranda; I do think, a king; — 

I would, not so! — and would no more endure 15 

This wooden slavery n than to suffer 
The flesh-fly blow my mouth. Hear my soul speak: 
The very instant that I saw you, did 
My heart fly to your service; there resides, 
To make me slave to it, and for your sake 20 

Am I this patient log-man. 

Miranda. Do you love me? 

Ferdinand. O heaven! O earth! bear witness to this 
sound, 5 
And crown what I profess with kind event, 6 25 

If I speak true; if hollowly, 7 invert 
What best is boded me to mischief! n I, 
Beyond all limit of what else 8 i' the world, 
Do love, prize, honor you. 

Miranda. I am a fool 3c 

To weep at what I am glad of. 

Prospero. Fair encounter 

1 Not the face but the whole human figure is meant. 2 Ignorant. 

3 Somewhat. 4 Rank. 

5 1, e., the vow uttered in lines 27-29. 6 Outcome, result. 

7 Insincerely. 8 Whatsoever else, everything else. 



IO 



5 SHAKESPEARE [act hi 

Of two most rare affections! Heavens rain grace * 
On that which breeds 2 between 'em! 

Ferdinand. Wherefore weep you? 

Miranda. At mine unworthiness, that dare not offer 
What I desire to give, and much less take 3 5 

What I shall die to want." But this is trifling; 
And all the more it " seeks to hide itself, 
The bigger bulk it shows. Hence, bashful cunning! 
And prompt me, plain and holy innocence! 
I am your wife, if you will marry me; 
If not, I'll die your maid. To be your fellow 4 
You may deny me, but I'll be your servant, 
Whether you will or no. 

Ferdinand. My mistress, dearest, 

And I thus humble ever." X S 

Miranda. My husband, then? 

Ferdinand. Ay, with a heart as willing 
As bondage e'er of " freedom; here's my hand. 

Miranda. And mine, with my heart in 't; and now farewell 
Till half an hour hence. 2 ° 

Ferdinand. A thousand thousand! 

[Exeunt Ferdinand and Miranda] 

Prospero. So glad of this as they I cannot be, 
Who are surpris'd " with all; but my rejoicing 
At nothing can be more. I'll to my book," 
For yet ere supper-time must I perform 25 

Much business appertaining." [Exit] 

Scene II. Another Part of the Island 
Enter Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo 

Stephano. Tell not me;" — when the butt is out we will! 
drink water, not a drop before; therefore bear up, and board "' 
'em. — Servant-monster, drink to me. 

1 Blessings, favors. 2 Develops, grows. 3 Dare take. 

4 Equal. Also used frequently in the sense of companion. 



scene n] THE TEMPEST 51 

Trinculo. Servant-monster! the folly of this island." They 
say there's but five upon this isle: we are three of them; if th' 
other two be brained like us, the State totters. 

Stephano. Drink, servant-monster, when I bid thee; thy eyes 
are almost set " in thy head. 5 

Trinculo. Where should they be set else? he were a brave 
monster indeed, if they were set in his tail. 

Stephano. My man-monster hath drowned his tongue in sack; 
for my part, the sea cannot drown me. I swam, ere I could re- 
cover * the shore, five-and-thirty leagues off and on," by this 
light! — Thou shalt be my lieutenant, monster, or my standard. 

Trinculo. Your lieutenant, if you list; " he's no standard." 12 

Stephano. Well not run, Monsieur Monster. 

Trinculo. Nor go 2 neither; but you'll lie, 3 like dogs, and yet 
say nothing neither. 15 

Stephano. Moon-calf, speak once in thy life, if thou beest a 
good moon-calf. 

Caliban. How does thy honor? Let me lick thy shoe. I'll 
not serve him, he is not valiant. 19 

Trinculo. Thou liest, most ignorant monster; I am in case to 
justle a constable." Why, thou deboshed 4 fish, thou, was there 
ever man a coward that hath drunk so much sack as I to-day? 
Wilt thou tell a monstrous lie, being but half a fish and half a 
monster? 24 

Caliban. Lo, how he mocks 5 me! wilt thou let him, my 
lord? 

Trinculo. Lord, quoth "he! — That a monster should be such 
a natural! 6 

Caliban. Lo, lo, again! bite him to death, I prithee. 29 

Stephano. Trinculo, keep a good tongue in your head; if you 
prove a mutineer, — the next tree! The poor monster's my sub- 
ject, and he shall not suffer indignity. 

Caliban. I thank my noble lord. Wilt thou be pleas'd 
To hearken once again to the suit I made to thee? 34 

1 Reach. 2 Walk. 3 Trinculo puns again. 

4 Debauched, debased. 5 Ridicules. 6 Idiot. 



52 SHAKESPEARE [act hi 

Stephano. Marry, will I: kneel and repeat it; I will stand, and 
so shall Trinculo. 

Enter Ariel, invisible 1 

Caliban. As I told thee before, I am subject to a tyrant, 
A sorcerer that by his cunning hath cheated me 
Of the island. 5 

Ariel. Thou liest. 

Caliban. Thou liest, thou jesting monkey, n thou; 

I would my valiant master would destroy thee ! 
I do not lie. 

Stephano. Trinculo, if you trouble him any more in 's tale, by 
this hand," I will supplant some of your teeth. 11 

Trinculo. Why, I said nothing. 

Stephano. Mum, then, and no more. — Proceed. 

Caliban. I say, by sorcery he got this isle; 
From me he got it. If thy greatness will, 15 

Revenge it on him, for I know thou dar'st, 
But this thing 2 dare not. 

Stephano. That's most certain. 

Caliban. Thou shalt be lord of it, and I'll serve thee. 

Stephano. How now shall this be compassed? 3 20 

Canst thou bring me to the party? 

Caliban. Yea, yea, my lord; I'll yield him thee asleep, 
Where thou mayst knock a nail into his head. 

Ariel. Thou liest; thou canst not. 

Caliban. What a pied ninny's n this! Thou scurvy patch! — 
I do beseech thy greatness, give him blows, 26 

And take his bottle from him; when that's gone, 
He shall drink nought but brine, for I'll not show him 
Where the quick freshes 4 are. 

Stephano. Trinculo, run into no further danger; interrupt the 
monster one word further, and, by this hand, I'll turn my mercy 
out o' doors and make a stock-fish n of thee. 32 

1 See page 25, line 10 and note. 2 Referring to Trinculo. 

3 Brought to pass. 4 Fresh-water springs. 



scene n] THE TEMPEST 53 

Trinculo. Why, what did I? I did nothing. I'll go farther off. 

Stephano. Didst thou not say he lied? 

Ariel. Thou liest. 

Stephano. Do I so? take thou that. [Beats him] As you like 
this, give me the lie another time. 5 

Trinculo. I did not give the lie. Out o' your wits, and hearing 
too? — A pox o' your bottle! this can sack and drinking do. — 
A murrain on your monster, and the devil take your fingers! 

Caliban. Ha, ha, ha! 

Stephano. Now, forward with your tale. — Prithee, stand 
farther off." 11 

Caliban. Beat him enough; after a little time 
I'll beat him too. 

Stephano. Stand farther. — Come, proceed. 

Caliban. Why, as I told thee, 't is a custom with him 15 

I' the afternoon to sleep; there thou mayst brain him, 
Having first seiz'd his books," or with a log 
Batter his skull, or paunch him with a stake," 
Or cut his wezand l with thy knife. Remember 
First to possess his books, for without them 20 

He's but a sot 2 as I am, nor hath not 
One spirit to command; they all do hate him 
As rootedly as I. Burn but his books." 
He has brave utensils, — for so he calls them, — 
Which, when he has a house, he'll deck withal." 25 

And that 3 most deeply to consider " is 
The beauty of his daughter. He himself 
Calls her a nonpareil. I never saw a woman 
But only Sycorax my dam and she; 4 

But she as far surpasseth Sycorax 30 

As great'st does least. 

Stephano. Is it" so brave a lass? 

Caliban. Ay, lord; she will become thy bed, I warrant, 
And bring thee forth brave brood. 

1 Windpipe. 2 Dullard, blockhead. 

3 That which. 4 Her. 



54 SHAKESPEARE [actiii 

Stephano. Monster, I will kill this man; his daughter and I will 
be king and queen, — save our graces! — and Trinculo and 
thyself shall be viceroys. Dost thou like the plot, Trinculo? 

Trinculo. Excellent. 

Stephano. Give me thy hand; I am sorry I beat thee, but while 
thou livest keep a good tongue in thy head. 6 

Caliban. Within this half hour will he be asleep; 
Wilt thou destroy him then? 

Stephano. Ay, on mine honor. 

Ariel. This will I tell my master. 10 

Caliban. Thou mak'st me merry; I am full of pleasure. 
Let us be jocund; will you troll l the catch 2 
You taught me but while-ere? 3 

Stephano. At thy request, monster, I will do reason, any rea- 
son." — Come on, Trinculo, let us sing. [Sings] 

Flout 'em and scout 'em, and scout 'em and flout 'em; 16 
Thought is free. n 

Caliban. That's not the tune. 

[Ariel plays the tune on a tabor and pipe] 

Stephano. What is this same? 

Trinculo. This is the tune of our catch, played by the picture 
of Nobody . n 21 

Stephano. If thou beest a man, show thyself in thy likeness; 
if thou beest a devil, take \ as thou list. 4 

Trinculo. O, forgive me my sins! 

Stephano. He that dies pays all debts; I defy thee. — Mercy 
upon us! 26 

Caliban. Art thou afeard? 

Stephano. No, monster, not I. 

Caliban. Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, 
Sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not. 30 

Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments 

1 Sing gaily. 2 A part-song like the "round." 

3 A short time ago. 4 Pleases t. 



scene in] THE TEMPEST 55 

Will hum about mine ears; and sometimes voices, 

That, if I then had wak'd after long sleep, 

Will make me sleep again; and then, in dreaming, 

The clouds methought would open and show riches 

Ready to drop upon me; that, 1 when I wak'd, 5 

I cried to dream again. 

Stephano. This will prove a brave kingdom to me, where I 
shall have my music for nothing. 
Caliban. When Prospero is destroy'd. 9 

Stephano. That shall be by and by; 2 I remember the story. n 
Trinculo. The sound is going away; let's follow it and after 
do our work. 

Stephano. Lead, monster; we'll follow. — I would I could see 
this taborer; he lays it on. 

Trinculo. Wilt come? I'll follow, Stephano. 15 

[Exeunt] 

Scene III. Another Part of the Island 

Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Gonzalo, Adrian, 
Francisco, and others 

Gonzalo. By 'r lakin, w I can go no further, sir, 
My old bones ache; here's a maze trod, indeed, 
Through forthrights and meanders! n By your patience, 
I needs must rest me. 

Alonso. Old lord, I cannot blame thee, 20 

Who am myself attach'd 3 with weariness, 
To the dulling of my spirits; sit down and rest. 
Even here I will put off my hope, and keep it 
No longer for my flatterer; he is drown'd 

Whom thus we stray to find, and the sea mocks 25 

Our frustrate 4 search on land. Well, let him go. 

Antonio. [Aside to Sebastian] I am right glad that he's so out 
of hope. n 
Do not, for one repulse, forgo 5 the purpose 

1 So that. 2 Shortly. 3 Seized. 4 Frustrated, baffled. 5 Forego. 



56 SHAKESPEARE [act id 

That you resolv'd to effect. 

Sebastian. [Aside to Antonio] The next advantage l 
Will we take throughly. 2 

Antonio. [Aside to Sebastian] Let it be to-night; 
For, now they are oppressed 3 with travel, they 5 

Will not, nor cannot, use such vigilance 
As when they are fresh. 

Sebastian. [Aside to Antonio] I say, to-night; no more. 

[Solemn and strange music] 

Alonso. What harmony is this? — My good friends, hark! 

Gonzalo. Marvellous sweet music ! 10 

Enter Prospero above, 71 invisible. Enter several strange Shapes, 
bringing in a banquet: they dance about it with gentle auctions of 
salutation; and, inviting the King, etc., to eat, they depart 

Alonso. Give us kind keepers, heavens! — What were these? 

Sebastian. A living drollery . n Now I will believe 
That there are unicorns; n that in Arabia 
There is one tree, the phoenix' throne, one phoenix n 
At this hour reigning there. 15 

Antonio. I'll believe both; 

And what does else want credit, come to me, 
And I'll be sworn 't is true; travellers ne'er did lie, 
Though fools at home condemn 'em. 

Gonzalo. If in Naples 20 

I should report this now, would they believe me? 
If I should say I saw such islanders, — 
For, certes, 4 these are people of the island, — 
Who, though they are of monstrous shape, yet, note, 
Their manners are more gentle-kind 5 than of 25 

Our human generation 6 you shall find 
Many, nay, almost any. 

Prospero. [Aside] Honest lord, 

1 Favorable opportunity. 2 Thoroughly. 3 Exhausted. 

4 Certainly. 5 Courteous, gentle. 6 Race. 



scene in] THE TEMPEST 57 

Thou hast said well, for some of you there present 
Are worse than devils. 

Alonso. I cannot too much muse * 

Such shapes, such gesture, and such sound, expressing — 
Although they want the use of tongue — a kind 5 

Of excellent dumb discourse. 

Prospero. [Aside] Praise in departing." 

Francisco. They vanish'd strangely. 

Sebastian. No matter, since 

They have left their viands behind; for we have stomachs. — 
Will 't please you taste of what is here? 11 

Alonso. Not I. 

Gonzalo. Faith, sir, you need not fear. When we were boys, 
Who would believe that there were mountaineers 
Dew-lapp'd like bulls, whose throats had hanging at 'em 15 
Wallets of flesh? n or that there were such men 
Whose heads stood in their breasts? n which now we find 
Each putter-out of five for one n will bring us 
Good warrant of. 

Alonso. I will stand to and feed, 20 

Although my last; no matter, since I feel 
The best is past. — Brother, my lord the duke, 
Stand to, and do as we. 

Thunder and lightning. Enter Ariel, like a harpy, claps his wings 
upon the table, and with a quaint device the banquet vanishes 

Ariel. You are three men of sin, whom destiny, — 
That hath to 2 instrument this lower world 25 

And what is in 7 t, — the never-surfeited sea 
Hath caus'd to belch up you; and on this island, 
Where man doth not inhabit, — you 'mongst men 
Being most unfit to live. I have made you mad; 
And even with such-like valor men hang and drown 30 

Their proper 3 selves. 

[Alonso, Sebastian, etc., draw their swords] 

1 Wonder at. 2 As, for. 3 Own. 



58 SHAKESPEARE [act hi 

You fools ! I and my fellows 
Are ministers of Fate; the elements, 
Of whom * your swords are temper'd, may as well 
Wound the loud winds, or with bemock'd-at-stabs 
Kill the still-closing waters," as diminish 5 

One dowle n that's in my plume. My fellow-ministers 
Are like invulnerable. If you could hurt, 
Your swords are now too massy 2 for your strengths 
And will not be uplifted. But remember, — 
For that's my business to you, — that you three 10 

From Milan did supplant good Prospero, 
Expos'd unto the sea, which hath requit 3 it, 
Him and his innocent child; for which foul deed 
The powers, delaying, not forgetting, have 
Incens'd the seas and shores, yea, all the creatures, 15 

Against your peace. — Thee of thy son, Alonso, 
They have bereft, and do pronounce by me, 
Lingering perdition 4 — worse than any death 
Can be at once n — shall step by step attend 
You and your ways; whose 5 wraths to guard you from, — 20 
Which here, in this most desolate isle, else falls 
Upon your heads, — is nothing but heart's sorrow 
And a clear 6 life ensuing. 

He vanishes in thunder; then, to soft music, enter the Shapes again, 
and dance with mocks and mows, and carry out the table 

Prospero. [Aside] Bravely 7 the figure of this harpy hast thou 
Perform'd, my Ariel; a grace it had, devouring." 25 

Of my instruction hast thou nothing bated 8 
In what thou hadst to say; so, with good life 
And observation strange," my meaner ministers 

1 Which. 2 Heavy, massive. 

3 Requited. 4 Ruin, destruction. 

5 Powers in line 14 is the antecedent. 6 Pure, innocent. 

7 Excellently. 8 Omitted. 



scene m] THE TEMPEST 59 

Their several kinds have done. w My high charms work, 

And these mine enemies are all knit up 

In their distractions; they now are in my power, 

And in these fits I leave them while I visit 

Young Ferdinand — whom l they suppose is drown'd — 5 

And his and mine 2 lov'd darling. [Exit above] 

Gonzalo. V the name of something holy, sir, why stand you 
In this strange stare? 

Alonso. O, it is monstrous, monstrous! 

Methought the billows spoke and told me of it; n 10 

The winds did sing it to me, and the thunder, 
That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounced 
The name of Prosper; it did bass my trespass." 
Therefore my son i' the ooze is bedded; and 
I'll seek him deeper than e'er plummet sounded 15 

And with him there lie mudded. [Exit] 

Sebastian. But one fiend at a time, n 

I'll fight their legions o'er. 

Antonio. I'll be thy second. 

[Exeunt Sebastian and Antonio] 

Gonzalo. All three of them are desperate; their great guilt, 
Like poison given to work a great time after, 2 1 

Now gins to bite n the spirits. — I do beseech you 
That are of suppler joints, follow them swiftly 
And hinder them from what this ecstasy 3 
May now provoke them to. 25 

Adrian. Follow, I pray you. [Exeunt] 

1 Who. 2 My. 3 Madness. 



60 SHAKESPEARE [act iv 

ACT IV 

Scene I. Before Prosperous Cell 
Enter Prospero, Ferdinand, and Miranda 

Prospero. If I have too austerely punish'd you, 
Your compensation makes amends, for I 
Have given you here a thread of mine own life, w 
Or that for which I live, who once again 

I tender to thy hand. All thy vexations 5 

Were but my trials of thy love, and thou 
Hast strangely l stood the test; here, afore heaven, 
I ratify this my rich gift. O Ferdinand, 
Do not smile at me that I boast her off, 

For thou shalt find she will outstrip all praise 10 

And make it halt behind her. 

Ferdinand. I do believe it 

Against an oracle." 

Prospero. Then, as my gift and thine own acquisition 
Worthily purchas'd, 2 take my daughter; but 15 

If thou dost break her virgin-knot 3 before 
All sanctimonious ceremonies may 
With full and holy rite be minister'd, 
No sweet aspersion n shall the heavens let fall 
To make this contract grow, but barren hate, 20 

Sour-eyed 4 disdain, and discord shall bestrew 
The union of your bed with weeds n so loathly 5 
That you shall hate it both. Therefore, take heed, 
As Hymen's lamps shall light you. w 

Ferdinand. As I hope 25 

For quiet days, fair issue, and long life, 
With such love as \ is now, the murkiest den, 
The most opportune n place, the strong'st suggestion 6 

1 Extraordinarily. 2 Obtained. 3 Chastity. 

4 Sullen-eyed. 5 We now use the word loathsome. G Temptation. 



scene i] THE TEMPEST 6 1 

Our worser genius can, w shall never melt 

Mine honor into lust, to take away 

The edge of that day's celebration 

When I shall think or x Phoebus' steeds n are founder'd 2 

Or night kept chain'd below. 5 

Prospero. Fairly spoke. 3 

Sit then and talk w T ith her; she is thine own. — 
What, Ariel! my industrious servant, Ariel! 

Enter Ariel 

Ariel. What would my potent master? here I am. 

Prospero. Thou and thy meaner fellows n your last service 
Did worthily perform, and I must use you n 

In such another trick. Go bring the rabble, 4 
O'er whom I give thee power, here to this place. 
Incite them to quick motion, for I must 

Bestow upon the eyes of this young couple 15 

Some vanity 5 of mine art; it is my promise, 
And they expect it from me. 

Ariel. Presently? 6 

Prospero: Ay, with a tw T ink. 

Ariel. Before you can say 'come' and 'go,' 20 

And breathe twice, and cry ' so, so,' 
Each one, tripping on his toe, 
Will be here with mop and mow." — 
Do you love me, master? no? 

Prospero. Dearly, my delicate Ariel. Do not approach 25 
Till thou dost hear me call. 

Ariel. Well, I conceive. 7 [Exit] 

Prospero. Look thou be true; do not give dalliance 
Too much the rein; the strongest oaths are straw 
To the fire i' the blood; be more abstemious, 30 

1 Either. 2 Crippled, disabled. 3 Spoken. 

4 Crowd of "meaner ministers," but not used in a slighting sense. 

5 Illusion, deception. 6 Immediately? 7 Understand. 



62 SHAKESPEARE [act iv 

Or else good night your vow ! n 

Ferdinand. I warrant you, sir; 

The white-cold virgin snow upon my heart 
Abates the ardor of my liver. 1 

Prospero. Well. — 5 

Now come, my Ariel! bring a corollary 2 
Rather than want a spirit; appear, and pertly! 3 — 
No tongue! all eyes! be silent." [Soft music] 

Enter Iris " 

Iris. Ceres," most bounteous lady, thy rich leas 4 
Of wheat, rye, barley, vetches, 5 oats, and pease; 10 

Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep, 
And flat meads thatch'd with stover, 6 them to keep; 
Thy banks with pioned and lilied brims," 
Which spongy 7 April at thy hest betrims, 
To make cold nymphs chaste crowns; and thy broom groves," 
Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves, 16 

Being lass-lorn; " thy pole-clip t vineyard; " 
And thy sea-marge, sterile and rocky-hard, 
Where thou thyself dost air; — the queen o' the sky," 
Whose watery arch and messenger am I, 20 

Bids thee leave these, and with her sovereign grace, 
Here on this grass-plot, in this very place, 
To come and sport. Her peacocks " fly amain; 8 
Approach, rich Ceres, her to entertain. 

Enter Ceres 

Ceres. Hail, many-color'd messenger, that ne'er 25 

Dost disobey the wife of Jupiter! 
Who, with thy saffron wings, upon my flowers 
Diffusest honey-drops," refreshing showers, 
And with each end of thy blue bow dost crown 

1 The seat of passion. 2 More than enough. 3 Promptly, briskly. 
4 Fields. 5 Forage plants. 8 Fodder. 7 Wet, rainy. 8 Swiftly. 



SCENE i] THE TEMPEST 63 

My bosky n acres and my unshrubb'd down, 

Rich scarf to my proud earth! Why hath thy queen 

Summon'd me hither to this short-grass'd green? 

Iris. A contract of true love to celebrate, 
And some donation freely to estate l 5 

On the blest lovers. 

Ceres. Tell me, heavenly bow, 

If Venus or her son/* as thou dost know, 
Do now attend the queen? Since they did plot 
The means that 2 dusky Dis my daughter got/* 10 

Her and her blind boy's scandal'd 3 company 
I have forsworn. 

Iris. Of her society 

Be not afraid; I met her deity 

Cutting the clouds towards Paphos, w and her son 15 

Dove-drawn n with her. Here thought they to have done 
Some wanton charm upon this man and maid, 
Whose vows are that no bed-right shall be paid 
Till Hymen's torch 4 be lighted; but in vain. 
Mars's hot minion is return'd again; n 20 

Her waspish-headed son has broke his arrows, 
Swears he will shoot no more, but play with sparrows 
And be a boy right out. n 

Ceres. Highest queen of state," 

Great Juno comes; I know her by her gait. 25 

Enter Juno 

Juno. How does my bounteous sister? Go with me 
To bless this twain, that they may prosperous be 
And honor'd in their issue. [They sing] 

Juno. Honor , riches, marriage-blessing, 

Long continuance, and increasing, 30 

Hourly joys be still 5 upon you! 
Juno sings her blessings on you. 

1 Bestow. 2 By which. 3 Scandalous. 4 Cf. page 60, line 24. 6 Always. 



64 SHAKESPEARE [act iv 

Ceres. Earth's increase, foison l plenty, 2 
Barns and garners never empty, 
Vines with clustering bunches growing, 
Plants with goodly burthen bowing; 
Spring come to you at the farthest 5 

In the very end of harvest! n 
Scarcity and want shall shun you; 
Ceres' blessing so is on you. 
Ferdinand. This is a most majestic vision, and 
Harmonious charmingly . n May I be bold 10 

To think these spirits? 

Prospero. Spirits, which by mine art 

I have from their confines calPd to enact 
My present fancies. 

Ferdinand. Let me live here ever; 15 

So rare a wonder'd father n and a wise 
Makes this place Paradise. 

[Juno and Ceres whisper, and send Iris on employment] 
Prospero. Sweet now, silence ! 

Juno and Ceres whisper seriously; 

There's something else to do. Hush, and be mute, 20 

Or else our spell is marr'd. 

Iris. You nymphs, calPd Naiads, of the winding brooks, 
With your sedg'd crowns n and ever harmless looks, 
Leave your crisp 3 channels and on this green land 
Answer your summons; Juno does command. 25 

Come, temperate 4 nymphs, and help to celebrate 
A contract of true love; be not too late. — 

Enter certain Nymphs 

You sunburnt sicklemen, of August weary, 

Come hither from the furrow and be merry. 

Make holiday; your rye-straw hats put on, 30 

1 Cf. page 35, line 10. 2 Plentiful. 

3 Curled by the breeze on the water. 4 Chaste. 



scene i] THE TEMPEST 65 

And these fresh nymphs encounter every one 
In country footing. 1 

Enter certain Reapers, properly habited: they join with the 
Nymphs in a graceful dance; towards the end whereof Prospero 
starts suddenly, and speaks; after which, to a strange, hollow, and 
confused noise, they heavily vanish 

Prospero. [Aside] I had forgot that foul conspiracy 
Of the beast Caliban and his confederates 
Against my life; the minute of their plot 5 

Is almost come. — [To the Spirits] Well done! Avoid; 2 no more! 

Ferdinand. This is strange; your father's in some passion 
That works 3 him strongly. 

Miranda. Never till this day 

Saw I him touch'd with anger so distemper'd. 4 10 

Prospero. You do look, my son, in a mov'd sort, 5 
As if you were dismay 'd; be cheerful, sir. 
Our revels now are ended. These our actors, 
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and 

Are melted into air, into thin air; 15 

And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, 
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, 
The solemn 6 temples, the great globe itself, 
Yea, all which it inherit, 7 shall dissolve, 

And, like this insubstantial 8 pageant faded, 20 

Leave not a rack n behind. We are such stuff 
As dreams are made on, 9 and our little life 
Is rounded 10 with a sleep. — Sir, I am vex'd; u 
Bear with my weakness; my old brain is troubled. 
Be not disturb'd with my infirmity. 25 

If you be pleas'd, retire into my cell 
And there repose; a turn or two I'll walk, 
To still my beating 12 mind. 

1 Dancing. 2 Begone. 3 Affects. 4 Ill-humored. B Manner. 
6 Stately. 7 Possess. Cf. page 46, line 18. 8 Unsubstantial. 9 Of. 
10 Rounded out, finished. n Distressed. 12 Troubled, agitated. 



66 SHAKESPEARE [act iv 

Ferdinand, Miranda. We wish your peace. [Exeunt] 

Prosper o. Come with a thought/* I thank thee, Ariel; come! 

Enter Ariel 

Ariel. Thy thoughts I cleave to. What's thy pleasure? 

Prospero. Spirit, 

We must prepare to meet with n Caliban. 5 

Ariel. Ay, my commander; when I presented Ceres 
I thought to have told thee of it, but I fear'd 
Lest I might anger thee. 

Prospero. Say again, where didst thou leave these varlets? * 

Ariel. I told you, sir, they were red-hot wdth drinking; io 
So full of valor that they smote the air 
For breathing in their faces, beat the ground 
For kissing of their feet, yet always bending 
Towards their project. Then I beat my tabor, 
At which, like unback'd colts, they prick'd their ears, 15 

Advanc'd their eyelids," lifted up their noses 
As 2 they smelt music; so I charm'd their ears 
That, calf-like, they my low T ing followed through 
Tooth'd briers, sharp furzes, pricking gorse, and thorns, 
Which enter'd their frail shins. At last I left them 20 

I' the filthy mantled n pool beyond your cell, 
There dancing up to the chins, that the foul lake 
O'erstunk their feet." 

Prospero. This was well done, my bird. 

Thy shape invisible retain thou still; 25 

The trumpery 3 in my house, go bring it hither 
For stale 4 to catch these thieves. 

Ariel. I go, I go. [Exit] 

Prospero. A devil, a born devil, on whose nature 
Nurture can never stick; on whom my pains, 30 

Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost; 
And as with age his body uglier grows, 

1 Rascals. 2 As if. 3 Gaudy apparel. 4 Bait. 



SCENE X I THE TEMPEST 6? 

So his mind cankers. 1 I will plague them all, 
Even to roaring. n — 

Enter Ariel, laden with glistering apparel, etc. 

Come, hang them on this line/ 1 

Prospero and Ariel remain invisible. Enter Caliban, Steph- 
ano, and Trinculo, all wet 

Caliban. Pray you, tread softly, that the blind mole may not 
Hear a foot fall; we now are near his cell. 

Stephana. Monster, your fairy, which you say is a harmless 
fairy, has done little better than played the Jack n with us — 
Do you hear, monster? If I should take a displeasure against 
you, look you, — 

Trinculo. Thou wert but a lost monster. IO 

Caliban. Good my lord, give me thy favor still. 
Be patient, for the prize I'll bring thee to 
Shall hoodwink n this mischance; therefore speak softly. 
Airs hush'd as midnight yet. 

Trinculo. Ay, but to lose our bottles in the pool, — i 5 

Stephana. There is not only disgrace and dishonor in that 
monster, but an infinite loss. 

Trinculo. That's more to me than my wetting; yet this is 
your harmless fairy, monster! 

Stephano. I will fetch off my bottle, though I be o'er ears n for 
my labor. 

Caliban. Prithee, my king, be ^uiet. Seest thou here, 
This is the mouth o' the cell; no noise, and enter. 
Do that good mischief which mav make this island 
Thine own for ever, and I, 2 thy Caliban, 2 <- 

For aye thy foot-licker. 

Stephano. Give me thy hand. I do begin to have bloody 
thoughts. J 

Trinculo. O King Stephano! O peer! ■ O worthy Stephano' 
look what a wardrobe here is for thee! 3 o 

1 Becomes corrupt. 2 yr 



68 SHAKESPEARE [act iv 

Caliban. Let it alone, thou fool; it is but trash. 

Trinculo. O, ho, monster! we know what belongs to a frip- 
pery. 1 — O King Stephano! 

Stephano. Put off that gown, Trinculo; by this hand, I'll have 
that gown. 5 

Trinculo. Thy grace shall have it. 

Caliban. The dropsy drown this fool! What do you mean, 
To dote thus on such luggage? Let's along, 
And do the murther first; if he awake, 

From toe to crown he'll fill our skins with pinches, 10 

Make us strange stuff." 

Stephano. Be you quiet, monster. — Mistress line, is not this 
my jerkin? 2 Now is the jerkin under the line; " now, jerkin, you 
are like to lose your hair n and prove a bald jerkin. 14 

Trinculo. Do, do ; we steal by line and level," an' t like your grace. 

Stephano. I thank thee for that jest; here's a garment for 't. 
Wit shall not go unrewarded while I am king of this country. 
'Steal by line and level' is an excellent pass of pate;" there's 
another garment for 't. 19 

Trinculo. Monster, come, put some lime " upon your fingers, 
and away with the rest. 

Caliban. I will have none on 't; 3 we shall lose our time," 
And all be turn'd to barnacles " or to apes 
With foreheads villanous 4 low." 24 

Stephano. Monster, lay to your fingers; help to bear this 
away where my hogshead of wine is, or I'll turn you out of my 
kingdom; go to," carry this. 
Trinculo. And this. 
Stephano. Ay, and this. 

A noise of hunters heard. Enter divers Spirits, in shape of dogs ; 
and hounds, and hunt them about, Prospero and Ariel setting j 
them on 

Prospero. Hey, Mountain, hey! 3° 

Ariel. Silver! there it goes, Silver! 
1 An old-clothes shop. 2 A short coat. 3 Of it. 4 Villainously. 



scene i] THE TEMPEST 69 

Prosper 0. Fury, Fury! there, Tyrant, there! hark, hark! — 
[Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo are driven out] 
Go charge my goblins that they grind their joints 
With dry l convulsions, shorten up their sinews 
With aged cramps, 2 and more pinch-spotted make them 
Than pard or cat o' mountain. 5 

Ariel. Hark, they roar! 

Prospero. Let them be hunted soundly. At this hour 
Lies at my mercy all mine enemies; 
Shortly shall all my labors end, and thou 

Shalt have the air at freedom. For a little 10 

Follow and do me service. [Exeunt] 

ACT V 

Scene I. Before the Cell of Prospero 
Enter Prospero in his magic robes, and Ariel 

Prospero. Now does my project gather to a head; 
My charms crack 3 not, my spirits obey, and Time 
Goes upright with his carriage." How's the day? 

Ariel. On the sixth hour; at which time, my lord, 15 

You said our work should cease. 

Prospero. I did say so 

When first I rais'd the tempest. Say, my spirit, 
How fares the king and 's followers? 

Ariel. Confin'd together 20 

In the same fashion as you gave in charge, 
Just as you left them; all prisoners, sir, 
In the line-grove which weather-fends your cell." 
They cannot budge till your release." The king, 
His brother, and yours, abide all three distracted, 25 

And the remainder mourning over them, 
Brimful of sorrow and dismay; but chiefly 

1 Severe. 2 Cf. page 25, line 3, and note. 

3 Break. Cf. page 70, line 19. 



70 SHAKESPEARE [act v 

Him l that you term'd, sir, the good old lord, Gonzalo. 

His tears run down his beard, like winter's drops 

From eaves of reeds. Your charm so strongly works 2 'em 

That if you now beheld them your affections 

Would become tender. 5 

Prospero. Dost thou think so, spirit? 

Ariel. Mine would, sir, were I human. 

Prospero. And mine shall. 

Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling 
Of their afflictions, and shall not myself, 10 

One of their kind, that relish all as sharply 
Passion as they, w be kindlier n mov'd than thou art? 
Though with their high wrongs I am struck to the quick, 
Yet with my nobler reason 'gainst my fury 
Do I take part. The rarer action is 15 

In virtue than in vengeance; they being penitent, 
The sole drift of my purpose doth extend 
Not a frown further. Go release them, Ariel; 
My charms I'll break, their senses I'll restore, 
And they shall be themselves. 20 

Ariel. I'll fetch them, sir. [Exit] 

Prospero. Ye elves n of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and 
groves, 
And ye that on the sands with printless foot 
Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him 25 

When he comes back; you demi-puppets 3 that 
By moonshine do the green sour ringlets n make 
Whereof the ewe not bites ; and you whose pastime 
Is to make midnight mushrooms," that rejoice 
To hear the solemn curfew," by whose aid — 30 

Weak masters n though ye be — I have bedimm'd 
The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds, 
And 'twixt the green sea and the azur'd vault 
Set roaring war; to the dread rattling thunder 
Have I given fire, and rifted Jove's stout oak n 35 

1 He. 2 Affects. 3 Small figures, fairies. 



scene i] THE TEMPEST 7 1 

With his own bolt; the strong-bas'd promontory 

Have I made shake, and by the spurs * pluck'd up 

The pine and cedar; graves at my command 

Have wak'd their sleepers, op'd, and let 'em forth 

By my so potent art. But this rough magic 5 

I here abjure; and, when I have requir'd 2 

Some heavenly music — which even now I do — 

To work mine end upon their senses that 

This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff, 

Bury it certain fathoms in the earth, 10 

And deeper than did ever plummet sound 

I'll drown my book. — [Solemn music] 

Here enter Ariel before: then Alonso, with a frantic gesture, at- 
tended by Gonzalo; Sebastian and Antonio in like manner, 
attended by Adrian and Francisco: they all enter the circle 
which Prospero had made, and there stand charmed; which 
Prospero observing, speaks 

A solemn 3 air, and the best comforter 

To an unsettled fancy , n cure thy brains, 

Now useless, boil'd n within thy skull! There stand, 15 

For you are spell-stopp'd. — 

Holy 4 Gonzalo, honorable man, 

Mine eyes, even sociable to the show of thine, 

Fall fellowly drops." — The charm dissolves apace; 5 

And as the morning steals upon the night, 20 

Melting the darkness, so their rising senses 

Begin to chase the ignorant fumes n that mantle 

Their clearer reason. — O good Gonzalo, 

My true preserver, and a loyal sir 

To him thou follow'st! I will pay thy graces 6 25 

Home 7 both in word and deed. — Most cruelly 

Didst thou, Alonso, use me and my daughter; 

1 Roots. 2 Requested. 3 Sad, melancholy. 4 Righteous, just. 
5 Rapidly. 6 Kindness. 7 Fully. 



72 SHAKESPEARE [act V 

Thy brother was a furtherer in the act. — 

Thou art pinch'd for 't now, Sebastian. — Flesh and blood, 

You, brother mine, that entertain'd ambition, 

ExpelPd remorse l and nature; 2 who, with Sebastian, — 

Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong, — 5 

Would here have kill'd your king; I do forgive thee, 

Unnatural though thou art. — Their understanding 

Begins to swell, and the approaching tide 

Will shortly fill the reasonable shore n 

That now lies foul and muddy. Not one of them 10 

That yet looks on me or would know me. — Ariel, 

Fetch me the hat and rapier in my cell; 

I will disease me, w and myself present 

As I was sometime Milan." Quickly, spirit; 

Thou shalt ere long be free. 15 

Ariel sings, and helps to attire him 

Where the bee sticks, there suck I; 

In a cowslip's bell I lie; 

There I couch when owls do cry" 

On the bat's back I do fly 

After summer n merrily. 20 

Merrily, merrily, shall I live now 
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough. 

Prospero. Why, that's my dainty Ariel! I shall miss thee, 
But yet thou shalt have freedom; — so, so, so. — 
To the king's ship, invisible as thou art. 25 

There shalt thou find the mariners asleep 
Under the hatches; the master and the boatswain 
Being awake, enforce them to this place, 
And presently, 3 I prithee. 

Ariel. I drink the air before me, and return 30 

Or 4 ere your pulse twice beat. [Exit] 

1 Pity. 2 Affection, natural feeling. 

3 Immediately. Cf. page 61, line 18. 4 Before. Cf. page 12, line 11. 



scene i] THE TEMPEST 73 

Gonzalo. All 1 torment, trouble, wonder, and amazement 
Inhabits here; some heavenly power guide us 
Out of this fearful country! 

Prospero. Behold, sir king, 

The wronged Duke of Milan, Prospero! 5 

For more assurance that a living prince 
Does now speak to thee, I embrace thy body; 
And to thee and thy company I bid 
A hearty welcome. 

Alonso. Whether thou beest he or no, 10 

Or some enchanted trifle to abuse n me, 
As late I have been, I not know; thy pulse 
Beats, as of flesh and blood, and since I saw thee 
The affliction of my mind amends, with which, 
I fear, a madness held me. This must crave — 15 

An if this be at all n — a most strange story. 
Thy dukedom I resign," and do entreat 
Thou pardon me my wrongs. n — But how should Prospero 
Be living and be here? 

Prospero. First, noble friend, 2 20 

Let me embrace thine age, whose honor cannot 
Be measur'd or confin'd. 3 

Gonzalo. Whether this be 

Or be not, I'll not swear. 

Prospero. You do yet taste 25 

Some subtleties n o' the isle that will not let you 
Believe things certain. — Welcome, my friends all! — 
[Aside to Sebastian and Antonio] But you, my brace of lords, 

were I so minded, 
I here could pluck his highness' frown upon you, 30 

And justify 4 you traitors; at this time 
I'll tell no tales. 

Sebastian. [Aside] The devil speaks in him. 

Prospero. No. w — 

For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother 35 

1 Nothing but. 2 Gonzalo. 3 Limited. 4 Prove. 



74 SHAKESPEARE [act v 

Would even infect * my mouth, I do forgive 
Thy rankest 2 fault, — all of them; and require 
My dukedom of thee, which perforce I know 
Thou must restore. 

Alonso. If thou beest Prospero, 5 

Give us particulars of thy preservation; 
How thou hast met us here whom three hours since 
Were wrack'd upon this shore, where I have lost — 
How sharp the point 3 of this remembrance is ! — 
My dear son Ferdinand. 10 

Prospero. I am woe 4 for 't, sir. 

Alonso. Irreparable is the loss, and patience 
Says it is past her cure. 

Prospero. I rather think 

You have not sought her help, of whose soft grace n 15 

For the like loss I have her sovereign aid 
And rest myself content. 

Alonso. You the like loss? 

Prospero. As great to me as late; n and supportable 
To make the dear loss have I means much weaker 20 

Than you may call to comfort you," for I 
Have lost my daughter. 

Alonso. A daughter? 

O heavens, that they were living both in Naples, 
The king and queen there! that they were, I wish 25 

Myself were mudded in that oozy bed 
Where my son lies. When did you lose your daughter? 

Prospero. In this last tempest. I perceive, these lords 
At this encounter do so much admire 

That they devour their reason," and scarce think 30 

Their eyes do offices of truth," their words 
Are natural breath; but, howsoe'er you have 
Been justled 5 from your senses, know for certain 
That I am Prospero, and that very duke 
Which was thrust forth of Milan, who most strangely 35 

1 Pollute. 2 Worst, grossest. 3 Sting. 4 Sorry. 5 Jostled. 



scene i] THE TEMPEST 75 

Upon this shore, where you were wrack'd, was landed, 

To be the lord on 't. No more yet of this; 

For 't is a chronicle of day by day, 

Not a relation for a breakfast," nor 

Befitting this first meeting. Welcome, sir; 5 

This cell's my court. Here have I few attendants, 

And subjects none abroad; pray you, look in. 

My dukedom since you have given me again, 

I will requite you with as good a thing; 

At least bring forth a wonder, to content ye 10 

As much as me my dukedom. 

Here Prospero discovers n Ferdinand and Miranda playing at 

chess 

Miranda. Sweet lord, you play me false. 

Ferdinand. No, my dear'st love, 

I would not for the world. 

Miranda. Yes, for a score of kingdoms you should wrangle, 
And I would n call it fair play. 16 

A Ions 0. If this prove 

A vision of the island, one dear son 
Shall I twice lose. 

Sebastian. A most high miracle ! 20 

Ferdinand. Though the seas threaten, they are merciful; 
I have curs'd them without cause. [Kneels] 

Alonso. Now all the blessings 

Of a glad father compass thee about! 
Arise, and say how thou cam'st here. 25 

Miranda. O, wonder! 

How many goodly creatures are there here! 
How beauteous mankind is ! O brave new world, 
That has such people in 't! 

Prospero. 'T is new to thee. . 30 

Alonso. What is this maid with whom thou wast at play? 
Your eld'st acquaintance cannot be three hours; 
Is she the goddess that hath sever'd us, 



76 SHAKESPEARE [act v 

And brought us thus together? 

Ferdinand. Sir, she is mortal, 

But by immortal Providence she's mine; 
I chose her when I could not ask my father 
For his advice, nor thought I had one. She 5 

Is daughter to this famous Duke of Milan, 
Of whom so often I have heard renown, 1 
But never saw before; of 2 whom I have 
Received a second life, and second father 
This lady makes him to me. 10 

Alonso. I am hers. 

But, O, how oddly will it sound that I 
Must ask my child forgiveness! 

Prospero. There, sir, stop; 

Let us not burthen our remembrances 15 

With a heaviness 3 that's gone. 

Gonzalo. I have inly 4 wept, 

Or should have spoke ere this. — Look down, you gods, 
And on this couple drop a blessed crown! 
For it is you that have chalk'd forth the way 20 

Which brought us hither. 

Alonso. I say Amen, Gonzalo! 

Gonzalo. Was Milan thrust from Milan n that his issue 
Should become kings of Naples? O, rejoice 
Beyond a common joy! and set it down 25 

With gold on lasting pillars: In one voyage 
Did Claribel her husband find at Tunis; 
And Ferdinand her brother found a wife 
Where he himself was lost; Prospero his dukedom 
In a poor isle; and all of us ourselves 30 

When no man was his own" 

Alonso. [To Ferdinand and Miranda] Give me your hands; 
Let grief and sorrow still 5 embrace his heart 
That doth not wish you joy! 

Gonzalo. Be it so! Amen! — 35 

1 Praise. 2 From. 3 Sorrow. 4 Inwardly. 5 Always. 



scene i] THE TEMPEST 77 

Enter Ariel, with the Master and Boatswain amazedly following 

O, look, sir! look, sir! here is * more of us! 

I prophesied, if a gallows were on land, 

This fellow could not drown. — Now, blasphemy, 

That swear'st grace 2 o'erboard, not an oath on shore? 

Hast thou no mouth by land? What is the news? 5 

Boatswain. The best news is that we have safely found n 
Our king and company; the next, our ship — 
Which, but three glasses n since, we gave out split — 
Is tight, and yare, 3 and bravely rigg'd as when 
We first put out to sea. 10 

Ariel [Aside to Prospero]. Sir, all this service 
Have I done since I went. 

Prospero [Aside to Ariel]. My tricksy 4 spirit! 

Alonso. These are not natural events; they strengthen 
From strange to stranger. — Say, how came you hither? 15 

Boatswain. If I did think, sir, I were well awake, 
I'd strive to tell you. We were dead of sleep, 
And — how we know not — all clapp'd 5 under hatches; 
Where, but even now, with strange and several 6 noises 
Of roaring, shrieking, howling, jingling chains, 20 

And moe 7 diversity of sounds, all horrible, 
We were awak'd; straightway, at liberty, 
Where we, in all her trim, freshly beheld n 
Our royal, good, and gallant ship, our master 
Capering to eye her." On a trice," so please you, 25 

Even in a dream, were we divided from them 
And were brought moping 8 hither. 

Ariel. [Aside to Prospero] Was 't well done? 

Prospero. [Aside to Ariel] Bravely, my diligence. 

Thou shalt be free. 30 

Alonso. This is as strange a maze as e'er men trod, 
And there is in this business more than nature 

1 Are. Cf. Cares for care, page 10, line 10. 2 Blessing. 

3 Ready. 4 Resourceful. 5 Shut up. 

6 Divers, different. 7 More. Cf. page 34, line 6. 8 Bewildered. 



78 SHAKESPEARE [actv 

Was ever conduct l of; some oracle 
Must rectify our knowledge. 

Prospero. Sir, my liege, 

Do not infest 2 your mind with beating 3 on 
The strangeness of this business. At pick'd leisure, 5 

Which shall be shortly, single I'll resolve you, w 
Which to you shall seem probable, of every 
These happen'd accidents; n till w T hen, be cheerful 
And think of each thing well. — [Aside to Ariel] Come hither, 
spirit. 10 

Set Caliban and his companions free; 

Untie the spell. — [Exit Ariel] How fares my gracious sir? 
There are yet missing of your company 
Some few odd 4 lads that you remember not. 

Enter Ariel, driving in Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo, in 
their stolen apparel 

Stephano. Every man shift for all the rest," and let no man 
take care for himself, for all is but fortune. — Coragio, bully 
monster, coragio! 17 

Trinculo. If these be true spies which I wear in my head, here's 
a goodly sight. 

Caliban. O Setebos, these be brave spirits indeed! 20 

How fine my master is! I am afraid 
He will chastise me. 

Sebastian. Ha, ha! 

What things are these, my lord Antonio? 
Will money buy 'em? 25 

Antonio. Very like; one of them 

Is a plain fish," and no doubt marketable. 

Prospero. Mark but the badges n of these men, my lords, 
Then say if they be true. — This misshapen knave, 
His mother was a witch; and one so strong 30 

That could control the moon, make flows and ebbs, 

1 Conductor. 2 Vex. 3 Pondering deeply. 4 Unnoted. 



scene ij THE TEMPEST 79 

And deal in her command without her power." 

These three have robb'd me; and this demi-devil — 

For he's a bastard one — had plotted with them 

To take my life. Two of these fellows you 

Must know and own; this thing of darkness I 5 

Acknowledge mine. 

Caliban. I shall be pinch'd to death. 

Alonso. Is not this Stephano, my drunken butler? 

Sebastian. He is drunk now; where had he wine? 

Alonso. And Trinculo is reeling-ripe; where should they 10 
Find this grand liquor that hath gilded 'em? n — 
How cam'st thou in this pickle? 

Trinculo. I have been in such a pickle since I saw you last 
that, I fear me, will never out of my bones; I shall not fear fly- 
blowing." 15 

Sebastian. Why, how now, Stephano! 

Stephano. O, touch me not; I am not Stephano, but a cramp. 

Prospero. You'd be king o' the isle, sirrah? 

Stephano. I should have been a sore one, then. 

Alonso. This is a strange thing as e'er I look'd on. 20 

[Pointing to Caliban] 

Prospero. He is as disproportion^ in his manners 
As in his shape. — Go, sirrah, to my cell; 
Take with you your companions; as you look 
To have my pardon, trim it handsomely. 

Caliban. Ay, that I will; and I'll be wise hereafter 25 

And seek for grace. 1 What a thrice-double ass 
Was I to take this drunkard for a god 
And worship this dull fool! 

Prospero. Go to; 2 away! 

Alonso. Hence, and bestow your luggage w T here you found it. 

Sebastian. Or stole it, rather. 31 

[Exeunt Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo] 

Prospero. Sir, I invite your highness and your train 
To my poor cell, where you shall take your rest 

1 Pardon. 2 Cf. page 68, line 27. 






8o SHAKESPEARE [act v 

For this one night, which, part of it, I'll waste 

With such discourse as, I not doubt^ shall make it 

Go quick away, — the story of my life, 

And the particular accidents gone by n 

Since I came to this isle; and in the morn 5 

I'll bring you to your ship, and so to Naples, 

Where I have hope to see the nuptial 

Of these our dear-belov'd solemnized, 

And thence retire me to my Milan, where 

Every third thought shall be my grave* 10 

Alonso. m I lon S 

To hear the story of your life, which must 
Take x the ear strangely. 2 

Prospero. I'll deliver all, 

And promise you calm seas, auspicious gales, 15 

And sail so expeditious that shall catch _ 

Your royal fleet far off. — [Aside to Ariel] My Ariel, chick, 
That is thy charge; then to the elements 
Be free, and fare thou well! — Please you, draw near. 

[Exeunt] 

EPILOGUE 

SPOKEN BY PROSPERO 

Now my charms are all o'erthrown 20 

And what strength I have 's mine own, 

Which is most faint; now, 't is true, 

I must be here confin'd by you 

Or sent to Naples. Let me not, 

Since I have my dukedom got 25 

And pardon'd the deceiver, dwell 

In this bare island by your spell; 

But release me from my bands 3 

With the help of your good hands." 

1 Captivate. 2 With wonder. 3 Bonds. 



scene i] THE TEMPEST 81 

Gentle breath of yours n my sails 

Must fill, or else my project fails, 

Which was to please. Now I want 

Spirits to enforce, art to enchant; 

And my ending is despair 5 

Unless I be reliev'd by prayer , n 

Which pierces so that it assaults 

Mercy itself n and frees l all faults. 

As you from crimes would pardon'd be, 

Let your indulgence set me free. 10 

1 Procures forgiveness for. 



QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT 

Act I 

Scene i. Why does the play begin with a storm? 

2. If Shakespeare had never been to sea, how do you explain 
his accurate use of sea terms? 

3. What character in this scene is most clearly drawn? 

4. Write out a description of this character in your own words. 

5. What is Gonzalo's real attitude toward the boatswain? 

6. What are the first impressions you get of the character 
of Sebastian and Antonio? 

7. What is the purpose of the storm? 

8. Compare, if possible, this opening scene of The Tempest 
with the storm scene in Pericles, III, 1. 

Scene 2. 1. When do we first learn that the storm is not due 
to natural causes? 

2. What are the first impressions you get of the character 
of Miranda? 

3. Judging from her first speech alone, what quality do you 
think is the key to her character? 

4. What does Miranda mean when she says "O, woe the day, " 
line 17? 

5. Do you think Miranda has seen any of the people on the 
ship when she says in line 5, "I have suffered with those that 
I saw suffer?" Compare this statement with lines 31 and 32, 
page 27. 

6. Of what is Prospero's mantle the symbol? 

7. Why does Shakespeare at various places in this scene have 
Prospero accuse Miranda of inattention to his story? 

8. How do lines 12 and 13, on page 14, accord with the char- 
acter of Miranda? Compare with lines 11 and 12 on page 17. 

82 



QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT 83 

9. Do you think it would be more natural for Miranda to 
regret her loss of royal position? 

10. Select the parts of Prosperous story that have a future 
significance in the play. 

11. Write out in your words the story of Prospers misfor- 
tunes. 

12. Why does Ariel make particular mention of Ferdinand 
among those who jumped overboard? 

13. Prospero has already assured Miranda that not a soul 
perished in the storm (line 5, page 13). Why, then, does he ask 
Ariel if all of them are safe (line 23, page 19)? 

14. How does AriePs name indicate his character? 

15. How does Miranda's name indicate her character? 

16. Do you think Prospero is justified in his quarrel with 
Ariel? 

17. What is the purpose of the quarrel? 

18. Why does Shakespeare have Prospero describe at length 
(a) AriePs imprisonment by Sycorax, (b) Sycorax herself? 

19. What did Prospero say to Ariel in line 13, page 23? 

20. Why do we learn so much about Caliban before he ap- 
pears? 

21. Do you think Prospero was justified in taking Caliban's 
possessions from him? 

22. What is the purpose of AriePs song, beginning "Full 
fathom five?" 

23. What do you imagine Ferdinand's appearance to be when 
he first comes on the stage? 

24. Study very carefully the scene and conversation be- 
tween Ferdinand and Miranda. Do you think it entirely 
natural? 

25. From what you already know of Miranda, do you expect 
her to talk and act as she does? 

26. Do you think Prospero has a quarrelsome disposition and 
a fiery temper? 

27. What does Prospero mean when he says, "It works" 
(line 27, page 29)? 



84 QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT 

28. Separate this scene into its logical divisions. 

29. Summarize all that Shakespeare has done in Act I to set 
his play in motion. 

Act II 

Scene 1. 1. A person is judged by what he says as well as by 
what he does. Estimate the character of Antonio and Sebastian 
by their remarks. 

2. Comment on this statement by Dowden: "The prolonged 
and dull joking of Sebastian in this scene cannot be meant by 
Shakespeare to be really bright and witty. It is meant to show 
that the intellectual poverty of the conspirators is as great as 
their jovial obliquity." 

3. Are the first impressions given in Act I, Scene 1, of these 
two characters and that of Gonzalo verified by the further 
portrayal in this scene? 

4. What are the chief characteristics of Gonzalo? 

5. Where does Gonzalo get the better of Antonio and Sebas- 
tian in the repartee? 

6. Can you differentiate the characters of Antonio and Se- 
bastian? 

7. Despite the cynical remarks of Sebastian and Antonio 
we get a good idea of the scenery and climate of the island. 
What is it? 

8. Why does Shakespeare refer to the marriage of Claribel 
to the King of Tunis? 

9. Why does not AriePs music make Antonio and Sebastian 
sleepy? 

10. What are Antonio's arguments to get Sebastian to agree 
to kill Alonso? 

11. Do you think them forcible? 

12. Why do they want to kill Gonzalo also? 

13. Are there any similarities between this plot of Antonio 
and Sebastian and that which had been carried out against 
Prospero? 



QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT 85 

14. Summarize all that Shakespeare has done for the plot in 
this scene. 

Scene 2. 1. To appreciate this scene fully you must imagine 
how it would be acted. Point out several instances where the 
humor would be greatly intensified by the acting. 

2. Why does the scene open with Caliban? 

3. In the last part of the preceding scene the remarks of 
Antonio and Sebastian are supposedly witty. In this scene those 
of Stephano and Trinculo are humorous. What are the differ- 
ences? 

4. What is the difference between wit and humor in general? 

5. How do we know that Trinculo is dressed as a King's 
jester? 

6. In low comedy scenes Shakespeare generally uses prose. 
Why are most of Caliban's speeches put into blank verse? 

7. How do Stephano and Trinculo differ in character? 

8. Do you think Caliban is the best drawn character of the 
three? 

9. Show that the conspiracy of Caliban, Stephano, and 
Trinculo is a burlesque of the conspiracy of Sebastian and 
Antonio. 

10. What is the purpose of this scene? 

Act III 

Scene 1. 1. Why did Prospero put this task of bearing logs 
on Ferdinand? 

2. Compare Miranda's statement, page 49, lines 3-5 of this 
scene with page 27, lines 31-32. Compare also page 49, lines 1-3 
with page 13, lines 25-26. Explain the divergencies. 

3. Miranda's character reaches the height of its delineation 
in this scene. From what you have already learned of her, does 
she act just as you would expect her to act? 

4. Are there any new elements of her character brought out 
in this scene? 

5. Write a character sketch of Miranda. 



86 QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT 

6. Is it necessary that Prospero should be a witness to this 
scene between Ferdinand and Miranda? 

7. Why does Shakespeare have Prospero say what he does 
say in lines 25-26, page 50? 

Scene 2. 1. How does this scene connect itself with Scene 2 
of Act II? 

2. Why did not Shakespeare attach it directly to Scene 2 
of Act II? 

3. What additional information does this scene give us? 

4. What does Trinculo probably mean when he says "the 
folly of this island," in line 1, page 51? 

5. Point out the most humorous features of this scene. 

6. Why does Caliban take such a dislike to Trinculo? 

7. Comment on the poetry of the last speech but one of Cali- 
ban's in this scene. 

Scene 3. 1. What is the purpose of the apparition that causes 
the banquet to vanish? 

2. What is the effect on Alonso of Ariel's accusation? On 
Sebastian and Antonio? 

3. Write out in your own words the first 14 lines of Ariel's 
speech beginning on page 57. 

4. In what does this scene advance the plot? 

Act IV 

1. Why does Prospero explain why he has punished Ferdi- 
nand? 

2. Part of the act is taken up with the masque. What is a 
masque? An antimasque? 

3. What characters take part in the masque? 

4. What characters take part in the antimasque? 

5. Pick out the spectacular features of the masque. 

6. Write out in your own words the speech of Ceres beginning 
on page 62. 

7. Pick out all the descriptive words in the first speech of 
Iris and of Ceres and study their effectiveness. Try to substitute 



QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT 87 

synonyms for them and determine if these substituted words 
are as effective as the words used. 

8. Comment on the descriptive quality of " winding brooks," 
"sedg'd crowns/' " ever-harmless looks," " crisp channels," 
" temperate nymphs," in lines 22-27, P a g e 64. 

9. How do you think Prospero acts when he speaks lines 
3-5, page 65? 

10. Why should he appear so wrought up over the plot of 
Caliban and his confederates? 

11. Write out lines 16-23, page 65, in your own words. 

12. Why did not Shakespeare have Ariel's narrative (lines 
10-23, P a £ e 66) acted out? 

13. In the latter part of this act who do you think has the 
strongest character, Stephano, Trinculo, or Caliban? Why? 

14. Is the punishment meted out to these three commensurate 
with their crimes? 

15. What is the purpose of Prospero's speech at the close of 
the act? 

Act V 

1. Why is Gonzalo represented as being more sorrowful than 
his companions? 

2. What good lesson does Shakespeare teach in lines 15-18, 
page 70? 

3. Why is Prospero so tender toward Gonzalo? 

4. Why does Ariel fly on a bat's back rather than on that of 
some bird? 

5. Why does Prospero say "So, so, so " in line 24, page 72? 

6. Why does not Prospero expose the guilt of Antonio and 
Sebastian (lines 29-32, page 73)? 

7. Why does Shakespeare bring the shipmaster and the boat- 
swain into the close of the play? 

8. How does this part of Act V connect itself with the first 
scene of the play? 

9. Show how Antonio, Sebastian, Stephano and Trinculo 
maintain their true natures to the very end of the play. 



88 QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT 

10. Why does not Shakespeare mete out a more just punish- 
ment to Sebastian and Antonio? 

ii. What do you think are to be Prospero's first and second 
thoughts (line 10, page 80)? 

12. Why does Prospero give up magic? 

13. What is an Epilogue? 

14. What separate stories have run through the play? 

15. How are all of these stories united in the close of the play? 

16. Are you satisfied with the way the play ends? 

17. Do you like the play? 

18. In addition to the songs of Ariel, select at least five pas- 
sages in the play which are worth memorizing. 



NOTES 

9:3. Good. Here the vocative case, good fellow, good sir. 
Note this same use in lines 9 and 13 on page 10. 

10 : 2. Room enough. The boatswain is speaking to the storm. 
"Blow as hard as you please, until you burst your wind if you 
wish, just so you do not blow us on the land." He wants suffi- 
cient sea-room to keep his ship from grounding. Cf. page 19, 
lines 21 and 22, where Ariel tells Prospero that the ship was near 
the shore of the island during the storm. 

10: 4. Play the men. Act the part of men in spirit and cour- 
age. 

10: 8. You do assist the storm. By being in the boatswain's 
way and interfering with his work. 

10: n. Roarer was a term applied to a blustering fellow. It 
refers here to the waves. 

10: 16. Work the peace of the present. Quiet the storm now 
raging. 

10: 23. Complexion is perfect gallows. Complexion means 
here the nature of the boatswain expressing itself in his reckless 
attitude toward the storm. Gonzalo feels sure the boatswain will 
not be drowned, because "he that is born to be hanged needs no 
fear of drowning.' ' This idea of destiny or fate was prevalent in 
the sixteenth century. The rope of the boatswain's destiny is 
the hangman's rope. 

10 : 24. Doth little advantage. Is of little help. 

10: 27. Bring her to try wi* the main-course. Keep her close 
to the wind with the mainsail. 

10 : 29. Louder than . . . our office. Louder than the orders 
of the boatswain. 

11: 10. Lay . . . a-hold. Keep to the wind. Two courses. 
The foresail and the mainsail. Cf. main-course above. 

89 



90 NOTES 

ii : 13. Must our mouths be cold? Must we die? 

11: 19. Washing of ten tides! An allusion to the method of 
executing pirates described in contemporary accounts. They 
were hanged on the shore when the tide was out and left there 
until the tide had risen over them three times. In this case 
three tides are not enough. 

11 : 29. Long heath and brown furze. These simply add to the 
idea of the barrenness and desolation of the ground which Gon- 
zalo would prefer to the raging sea. 

12 : 4. Welkin. Sky. This passage may be paraphrased : 
"The wind drives the waves so high that they reach the clouds 
and extinguish the lightning." 

12: 13. Fraughting souls. The passengers and crew with 
whom the ship was freighted. 

12: 22. More better. The use of the double comparative 
and superlative was common in Elizabethan English. 

12: 26. Meddle. Mingle; "I never thought to try to know 
more/' is what she means. 

12 : 30. Lie there, my art. The anecdote has come down to us 
that Burleigh, Lord Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth, upon laying 
aside his robe at night used to say, "Lie there, Lord Treasurer." 

13: 2. Virtue of compassion. The depths of pity. 

13: 11. Bootless inquisition. Unavailing inquiry. 

13: 18. Out. Completely, fully. Cf. "And be a boy right 
out/' page 63, line 23. 

13 : 33. Year. Years. The form year for years is still used by 
the uneducated. 

14: 5. No worse issued. Descended from no lower rank than 
a princess. 

14: 11. Holp. Shortened form of holpen, the perfect partici- 
ple of the Anglo-Saxon verb kelpan, to help. 

14 : 13. The teen that I have turn'd you to. The trouble I have 
been to you. 

14: 26. Rapt in secret studies. Absorbed with studies into the 
occult or mysterious. Prospero was a magician. 

14: 31. To trash for overtopping. Trash was a hunting term 



NOTES qi 

signifying a strap or weight put on a dog to hold him back. 
Overtopping means overgrowth or growing higher than sur- 
rounding objects. The metaphor is mixed. It may be inter- 
preted "to hold back from getting too high in rank or 
power. " 

15: i. Key of officer and office. Shakespeare's fondness for 
wordplay is seen here in the double meaning of key; first, as the 
keys of the office, and secondly, as a tuning key. 

15 : 8. Closeness. Retirement to the extent of recluseness. 

15: 10. But ... all popular rate. With that which except 
for the retirement it involved, surpassed all popular estimation 
of its value. 

15: 12. Like a good parent. Dr. Johnson says that this is an 
allusion to the observation that a man above the common rate of 
men commonly has a son below it. 

15 : 20. Like one . . . own lie. One may repeat a falsehood 
to the extent that it becomes a truth to him. He therefore makes 
his memory a sinner to the truth. 

15: 21. Out o' the substitution. As a result of being my 
deputy. 

15: 22. Outward face. External duties. 

15: 27. To have no screen . . . play'd it for. "That there 
might be nothing between the part assumed and the reality, he 
was determined to become Duke without any restrictions. " — 
(Deighton, quoted by Furness). Prospero was the screen An- 
tonio had to remove before he could be "absolute Milan." 

15: 29. Temporal royalties. Antonio thought that Prospero 
had spent too much time in his library to be capable of ruling his 
dukedom. 

15:33. Coronet. Worn by noblemen and inferior to the 
crown worn by royalty. Cf. Julius Casar, I, 2, 237. " 'Twas not 
a crown neither, 'twas one of these coronets." 

16: 4. Condition and the event. The terms of the contract 
and the result. 

16: 12. In lieu o'' the premises. In consideration of the 
terms; i. e., of homage and tribute. 



92 NOTES 

16: 29. Impertinent. Notice the literal meaning: not "to the 
purpose." 

16:32. Wench. Not the derogatory meaning of present 
usage, but a term of familiarity. 

17: 7. Rats instinctively have quit it. It is said that rats 
know by instinct when a ship is unsafe and leave it. Hoist for 
hoisted. Sent us off. 

17: 16. Deck'd. This word is usually interpreted as sprinkled; 
but does it not mean covered? Shakespeare used it in a hyper- 
bolic sense to denote the intensity of Prospero's grief. This 
interpretation is borne out by the following line, "Under my 
burden groan'd." 

17: 18. Undergoing stomach. Enduring courage. The word 
stomach was used in Shakespeare's time to mean any strong 
mental attitude. 

17: 27. Steaded much. Been very helpful. 

18: 4. Have I, thy schoolmaster, . . . tutors not so careful. 
"I, thy schoolmaster, have made thee profit more than other 
princesses could have profited, who have had more time for 
lighter and more frivolous studies and who have had less careful 
tutors." 

18: 9. Forth is redundant here after jar. 

18: 13. Zenith is the highest point in the celestial hemisphere; 
influence is a term in astrology denoting the power of celestial 
bodies on one another or on terrestrial bodies. Zenith is used in 
this passage metaphorically to denote the highest point in Pros- 
pero's fortune. He says that by courting the influence of a star 
that is now favorable to him, he will be able to reach the highest 
point of his fortunes; but if he neglects to court it, his fortunes 
will droop. He must grasp the opportunity that now presents 
itself to him, or it will be forever lost to him. Cf. with this 
passage the following from Julius Ccesar, Act IV, 3. 
"There is a tide in the affairs of men, 
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; 
Omitted, all the voyage of their life 
Is bound in shallows and in miseries." 



NOTES 93 

18: 17. Good dulness. Convenient sleepiness; convenient to 
Prospero in plotting with Ariel. 

18: 25. Quality. Two meanings have been given this term as 
used here: (1) skill, (2) fellow-spirits. 

18: 27. To point . . . that I bade thee. In the smallest detail 
as I bade thee. 

18:31. Flam'd amazement. Caused amazement among 
those on the ship by appearing as a flame. 

*9 : 3- J ove > or J u piter, was the supreme king of the gods. He 
was called the "thunderer," and was represented as riding in his 
chariot, hurling the thunderbolt and lashing his enemies with a 
scourge of lightning. 

19: 5. Sight-outrunning. Darting faster than the eye could 
follow. 

19: 6. Neptune was the god of the waters. His symbol of 
power was the trident, a three-pronged spear. 

19 : 13. Felt a fever of the mad. Felt the fever that the insane 
feel. 

19: 25. Sustaining. The garments that held them up in the 
water; or that endured the effect of the salt water. 

19:30. Odd angle. Lonely corner. 

19: 31. His arms in this sad knot. His arms folded thus in 
sorrowful meditation. 

20: 4. Still-vex' d Bermoothes. The Bermudas always trou- 
bled by storms. 

20: 6. Suffer'd labor. The labor they have undergone. 

20: 17. Two glasses. Two hours. The reference is to the 
hour-glass. 

21 : 1. Ooze. Bottom of the ocean. Cf. page 59, line 14. 

21: 13. Argier. The old name for Algiers. 

21: 22. Blue-eyed hag. It is not probable that Sycorax had 
blue eyes, but that she had blue or black circles about her 
eyes. Shakespeare is trying to represent her as haglike as 
possible. 

22 : 4. Dull thing is spoken of and to Ariel, who perhaps had 
not been listening to Prospero. 



94 NOTES 

22: 19. Do my spiriting gently. Do my task as a spirit will- 
ingly. 

23: 17. A south-west. Shakespeare frequently represents 
the south as having a blighting influence. Cf. Coriolanus, I, 4, 
30: "AH the contagion of the south light on you;" As You Like 
It, III, 5, 50: "Like foggy south puffing with wind and rain;" 
and 2 Henry IV, II, 4, 392: "Like the south borne with black 
vapor." 

23 : 21. Shall, for that vast of night that they may work, etc. 
Cf. Hamlet, I, 2, 198, for a similar use of vast: "In the dead vast 
and middle of the night." The different parts of the night 
appear to have been alio ted to various spirits as is indicated in 
Lear, III, 4, 121, where Flibbertigibbet "begins at curfew, and 
walks till the first cock." This idea would fit the phrase "that 
they may work." 

24: 2. Qualities. What the qualities were is shown in the 
next line of the text. 

24: 7. Which for who was in common use in Shakespeare's 
time. Cf. "Our Father, which art in heaven" of the Lord's 
Prayer. (Authorized version.) 

24: 20. Capable of. Caliban's nature was so thoroughly evil 
that he was incapable of receiving good influence and teaching. 

24: 23. Know thine own meaning. I. e., know the meaning of 
the sounds you uttered. 

24: 31. Red plague. Plagues were not of infrequent occur- 
rence in the 16th century, and contagion from such a source was 
one of the reasons given against the performance of plays by 
those opposed to the theater. The disease broke out in 1563, 
1586, and 1593. According to Halliwell there were three kinds of 
plague, red, yellow, and black, the first being prevalent from mid- 
summer to autumn. 

24:32. Learning me. Learn for teach was common to the 
language of the time and not considered ungrammatical. 

25: 3. Old. Accustomed. Caliban had no doubt more than 
once experienced the torture of cramps at the hands of Prospero. 

25 : 4. Aches. Ache was formerly pronounced aitch like the 



NOTES 95 

letter H. The plural is a dissyllable and must be so regarded in 
scanning the line. 

25: 8. Setebos. The name of a Patagonian deity or devil. 

25 : 10. Invisible. It is said that actors in Shakespeare's time 
wore a particular kind of costume when they wished to appear 
invisible. 

25 : 14. Whist. Silent; — "kissed the wild waves into silence." 

25: 18. Dispersedly, within. Here and there in the rear of the 
stage. 

25: 26. Waits upon. Be attendant upon. 

26: 10. Nothing of him . . . rich and strange. There is 
nothing about him that perishes; everything is changed by the 
sea into something rich and wonderful. 

26: 17. The fringed curtains of thine eye advance is, in bald 
prose, raise your eyelids. 

26: 25. Canker. A worm that despoils flowers. Grief is to 
beauty what the canker is to the rose. 

26: 31. It goes on. Prospero's plan to have Miranda and 
Ferdinand fall in love is succeeding. 

27: 8. O you wonder! A play upon Miranda's name. Cf. 
page 75, line 10. 

27: 17. Single has the composite meaning of feeble and 
companionless. 

27: 20. Ebb. A figure from the tides; ebb being low tide, and 
flood high tide. Ferdinand means that since his father's death 
his own eyes have been flooded with tears. 

27: 24. Brave son. This son of Antonio is not mentioned in 
the cast of characters, nor is he alluded to elsewhere in the play. 

27: 26. More braver. Another instance of the double com- 
parative. Cf. page 12, line 22, and note. 

27: 28. Chang'd eyes. It is love at first sight between 
Miranda and Ferdinand. 

27: 30. Have done yourself some wrong. You have injured 
your honor in usurping the title of King of Naples. Prospero 
later on in the scene calls Ferdinand a spy and an impostor. 

28: 27. Gentle and not fearful. The easiest way to interpret 



96 NOTES 

Miranda's words is to say that Ferdinand was harmless and not 
terrible; but as he was quite ready to draw his sword to defend 
himself against Prospero's treatment, he shows a spirit of bravery 
becoming a prince. Miranda may mean, then, that he is high- 
spirited and dangerous. 

28: 29. My foot my tutor? My daughter so presumptuous as 
to instruct her father? 

30: 19. Watch . . . strike. It is said that striking watches 
were invented in Nuremberg about 15 10, and were called " Nu- 
remberg eggs." 

30: 22. When every grief . . . that's offer'd. When every 
grief that comes is welcomed. 

30: 25. Dolor. Note the play on the words dolor and dollar 
suggested by the words entertained and entertainer. 

31 : 7. Which, of he or Adrian. Which of the two, he or 
Adrian. 

31: 15. Ha, ha, ha! Most texts since the Folio (1623) assign 
to Sebastian the words, "Ha, ha, ha! So, you're paid." This is 
quite reasonable, as Sebastian has lost the wager, a laugh, which 
he immediately pays. 

31 : 20. Miss't. He could not keep from saying yet; or, he 
could not do without the island. For miss in the latter sense, 
see page 2^, line 4. 

31: 23. Temperance is a proper name, like Patience, Faith, 
and Hope. In line 22 it means temperature, climate. 

31 : 34. Misses not much. He describes pretty accurately. 

32: 13. Sweet. Charming. Sebastian uses sweet in an iron- 
ical sense as he does the words prosper well which follow. 

32: 17. Dido. Mythical Queen of Carthage, an ancient city 
founded by her in northern Africa. 

32 : 20. iEneas. A prince in the Trojan war and the hero of 
Virgil's jEneid. He escaped from the destruction of Troy and 
went to Italy where his descendants Romulus and Remus later 
founded the city of Rome. During his wanderings from Troy to 
Italy, he stayed for a year at the court of Dido in Carthage. 

32 : 24. Tunis . . . Carthage. Tunis, the capital of Tunis, a 



NOTES 97 

country in northern Africa, is about ten miles from the supposed 
site of ancient Carthage. 

32: 27. Miraculous harp. Amphion, King of Thebes, raised 
the walls of his city with the magical music of his harp. In like 
manner Apollo, another great musician, built the walls of Troy. 
Gonzalo, in making Tunis and Carthage one and the same 
city, has raised both the walls and the houses, thereby perform- 
ing a more wonderful feat than Amphion did. 

32: 34. Ay? Some editors have adopted Staunton's conjec- 
ture that Ay should be assigned to Alonso on his awaking from 
a sleep into which Prospero through Ariel had cast him. This 
certainly aids in interpreting Antonio's "Why, in good time," 
which may be regarded as an ironical reference to Alonso's 
waking. Furthermore, it explains why Gonzalo begins to relate 
to Alonso what he has been saying to Antonio, Sebastian, and 
Adrian concerning the freshness of their garments. 

33 : 8. I mean . . . well fished for. Sort means manner. 
Deighton's explanation of this pun on sort seems best of various 
attempts: "You fished a long time before you succeeded in 
catching that word sort; you have repeatedly tried to make out 
that our garments are as fresh as if they had never been im- 
mersed in the sea, and now at last you qualify your assertion by 
the word sort. In fished there is possibly an allusion also to 
their difficulty in fishing themselves out of the water." 

33: 12. Words . . . stomach of my sense. Stomach is here 
used in its derived sense of appetite. "Your words are as dis- 
tasteful to my feelings as food is to a stomach that does not 
relish it." Cf. page 17, line 18, for another use of the word. 

33: 26. His for its. The pronoun its was only coming into 
use at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Wave-worn 
basis. Base worn by the waves. 

33 : 34. Who may have either she or eye as its antecedent. 

34: 1. Importun'd is accented on the second syllable. 

34:3. Weigh'd, between loathness and obedience. De- 
liberated between reluctance, and obedience to her father. 

34: 9. Dear'st. Dear is here used in the sense of costly. 



9 8 NOTES 

34: 12. And time to speak it in. And it is inopportune. 
35: 15. The golden age. The fabulous period when man 
was innocent of wrong and without need of law and govern- 
ment. 

35: 16. Save. God save. Parliament in 1607 passed an act 
prohibiting the use of oaths in plays. The editors of the Folio 
(1623) perhaps omitted God in compliance with this law. 
35: 21. To minister occasion. To suggest opportunity. 
35: 27. Flat-long. With the flat side, as one strikes with the 
flat side of a sword instead of with the edge. 
35: 28. Brave mettle. Valorous spirit. 

35:31. Bat-fowling. Bird catching. Absence of the moon 
would help this sport as it was practiced at night with lights. 
36: 2. Adventure my discretion. Risk my reputation for 
being discreet. 

36:4. Go sleep, and hear us. An obscure remark. Per- 
haps it means, " Go to sleep, and then you will hear whether we 
laugh at you in your sleep or not." 
36: 9. Omit the heavy offer. Neglect the offer of sleep. 
36: 24. What might, worthy Sebastian. Compare the con- 
versation between Antonio and Sebastian with that in Macbeth, 
Act I, Scene 5, between Lady Macbeth and her husband. 
36: 26. The occasion speaks. The opportunity proclaims. 
37: 11. Trebles thee o'er. "Makes thee thrice as great as 
thou now art." 

37: 12. Standing water. Quiet, neither ebbing nor flowing, 
and ready to listen. Cf. Twelfth Night, I, 5, 168. "Tis with 
him e'en standing water between boy and man." 

37: 17. If you but knew, etc. The passage may be para- 
phrased: "If you but knew how you support the thought I have 
in mind while you mock it, and how you entertain it seriously 
though you try to strip it of seriousness ! Those who allow them- 
selves to go backward because of their fear of going forward or 
because of sloth, frequently find their fortunes at low ebb." 

37: 27. This lord of weak remembrance, etc. This lord 
whose memory is failing will, when he is dead, be as little re- 



NOTES 99 

membered as he now remembers. It is a debated point who is 
meant by this lord, Francisco or Gonzalo. 

37: 31. Professes to persuade. Makes a profession or busi- 
ness of persuading. 

38: 5. But doubts discovery there. Of all the many at- 
tempts to interpret this obscure passage that of Furness seems 
the simplest: "When ambition has pierced to its furthest wink, 
there discovery ceases and the crown is found." 

38: 12. Beyond man's life. Beyond what a man can travel 
in a lifetime. 

38: 15. From whom. Coming from whom. 

38: 16. Cast. Thrown on the shore. Cast is also a stage term 
as in "cast of characters/' "cast a part." This suggests the 
stage terms act, prologue, and discharge (perform). Cf. A Mid- 
summer NigMs Dream, I, 2, 95: "I will discharge it;" (i. e., the 
part of Pyramus). Antonio says that the same destiny that cast 
them ashore casts them to perform an act to w r hich the past is a 
prologue and the future is the act (or performance) itself. 

38: 32. Make a chough of as deep chat. Cause a chough to 
chatter as profoundly. 

39 : 14. If't were a kibe . . . slipper. If it were a chilblain 
(sore on the heel), I should have to wear a slipper. 

39: 17. Twenty consciences . . . molest! Antonio says that 
if there were twenty consciences between him and the throne 
of Milan, they might all freeze and then melt before he would 
allow them to cause him a twinge. 

39: 22. Perpetual wink. Everlasting sleep. 

39: 23. Ancient morsel, this Sir Prudence. Antonio applies 
these epithets contemptuously to Gonzalo. 

39: 26. Tell the clock. Count the strokes of the clock. 

40: 10. His time doth take. Seizes its opportunity. For his 
see note to page ^, line 26. 

42: 5. Bear off. Keep off. 

42: 8. Bombard. A large leather vessel for holding liquor; 
so-called perhaps from its resemblance in shape to the earliest 
cannons in use called bombards. Cf. our modern bombardment. 



IOO NOTES 

42: 13. Poor- John. Hake (a species of fish) salted and dried. 

42 : 14. Had this fish painted. Had a painting of this fish to 
put in front of a booth. 

42: 15. Make a man. Make a man's fortune. 

42: 18. A dead Indian. An allusion perhaps to the Indians 
brought back to England by voyagers to America. 

42: 19. O y my troth. As I am truthful. 

42 : 22. Gaberdine. An outer garment of coarse cloth. It was 
formerly worn by the Jews. Cf. Merchant of Venice, I, 3, 113. 

42: 24. Shroud. Take shelter. Though Shakespeare uses 
the word shroud in the sense of shelter and cover in various 
places, yet the word may have suggested itself to Trinculo by his 
reference to the death of Caliban a few lines before. 

43: 13. On four legs. On crutches. 

43: 18. Should he learn. Should he have learned. 

43: 22. Neat's leather. Neat was the old word for cattle. 

43: 28. I will not take too much for him. No amount of 
money will be too much for him. 

43: 31. Trembling. A sign of being possessed by a devil. 

44: 1. Come on your ways. Come. 

44: 2. Here is that which will give language to you, cat. 
The adage, "Good liquor will make a cat speak," was doubtless 
in Shakespeare's mind when he wrote this passage. 

44: 11. Amen. Stephano thinks the forward mouth has 
enough. 

44: 15. I have no long spoon. Referring to the familiar 
adage that "He must have a long spoon that must eat with the 
devil." It occurs in Comedy of Errors, IV, 3, 64. 

44: 22. Moon-calf. An imaginary monstrosity whose de- 
formity was supposed to be due to the influence of the moon. 

44: 30. Stomach is not constant. The rough weather at sea 
and the bottle have been too much for Stephano's stomach. 

45: 9. Kiss the book. I. e., the bottle. 

45: 17. When time was. Once upon a time. 

45: 19. Thee, and thy dog, and thy bush. Cf. A Midsummer 
Night's Dream, V, 1, 136. Various traditions have grown up 



NOTES 101 

about the man in the moon, one of which is that the figure is that 
of Cain with his dog and thorn-bush, the latter being emblemat- 
ical of thorns and briers of the "fall" and the former of the "foul 
fiend." Another tradition which has its source in Numbers, XV: 
32, is that the figure is that of a man leaning on a fork, on which 
he has been carrying a bundle of sticks picked up on Sunday. 

45 : 24. Well drawn. A deep draught. 

46: 11. Pig-nuts. Nuts that grow in the ground at the end of 
very crooked roots. It is said that they cannot be pulled out by 
force, which would account for Caliban's having to dig them. 

46: 15. Young scamels from the rock. A vast amount of 
commentary has grown up around this word scamels, and inter- 
pretations all the way from shell-fish to sea-gulls and squirrels 
have been given it. Whatever it was, it was a delicacy and a 
rare one, for Caliban could get it only "sometimes." 

46: 18. Inherit. Take possession. As Stephano thinks the 
King and all the company are drowned and as Caliban seems to 
be the only resident on the island, he and Trinculo will take 
possession of it. 

46: 26. Trenchering. A trencher is a large wooden platter 
from which food was served. 

47: 2. And their labor delight in them sets off. Either labor 
or delight may be the subject or the object of sets off. In view of 
what Ferdinand says in the line following regarding his attitude 
toward his task, it seems best to consider delight as the subject 
and labor as the object. The passage may accordingly be 
paraphrased: "The pleasure taken in fanciful sports counter- 
balances or removes the labor." 

47: 4. Most poor matters . . . rich ends. "Most poor mat- 
ters" means "poorest matters" (superlative of poor), and not the 
"greater part of poor matters." Paraphrase: "The humblest 
tasks have rich rewards." 

47: 11. Upon a sore injunction. I. e., of punishment if he 
does not do the work. 

47: 15. I forget . . . most busy, least when I do it. This 
passage has provoked more discussion than any other passage in 



102 NOTES 

all of Shakespeare's works. The First Folio reads, "Most busie 
lest, when I doe it." Later folios read, "Most busie least, when 
I do it." In any case, the sense of the passage is clear. Fer- 
dinand means that Miranda so fills his thoughts that he forgets 
to go on with his work; but that these very thoughts are so re- 
freshing that he is more able and willing to work, and they cause 
him to be busiest when it appears he is least so. 

47: 23. Safe. He'll not interfere with us. 

48: 13. Visitation was suggested by infected in the preceding 
line and both terms were in common use when the plague pre- 
vailed. See note on red plague, page 24, line 31. 

48: 24. Eyed with best regard. Observed with highest 
interest. 

48: 27. Never any. Never have I liked any. 

48: 30. And put it to the foil. And marred it. 

49: 10. To like of. To be pleased with. 

49: 16. Wooden slavery. Slavery of carrying logs. 

49: 27. Invert what best is boded me to mischief! Change 
the best that is promised me to mischief. 

50 : 6. To want. From wanting. 

50: 7. It. Note the charming delicacy of Miranda, how she 
refrains from saying the word love. 

50: 15. Thus humble ever. What is the stage action of 
Ferdinand as he says these words? 

50: 18. E'er of. I. e., ever willing for. 

50: 23. Are surprised for am surprised. 

50: 24. Book. Book of magic. Cf. page 17, lines 27-30. 

50: 26. Business appertaining. Work that is incumbent. 

50: 27. Tell not me. Don't talk to me. 

50 : 28. Bear up and board are nautical terms, the first meaning 
run the ship into the wind, or make ready to attack; the second, 
fight hand to hand. Of course in Stephano's drunken slang they 
simply mean drink. 

51: 1. The folly of this island. Thought by some to be a 
toast proposed by Trinculo. 

51 : 5. Set. Fixed, as in a stare. Cf. Twelfth Night, V, i, 204, 



NOTES 103 

"Oh, he's drunk, Sir Toby, an hour agone; His eyes were set at 
eight i' the morning.'' 

51 : 10. Off and on. To and fro. 

51:12. List. Please. Cf. "The wind bloweth where it 
listeth." John, III: 8. Standard. Standard bearer. Trinculo 
then plays on the word by saying that Caliban is no standard 
because he's too drunk to stand. 

51 : 21. In case to justle. In a mood to fight. 

51: 27. Quoth. Says. Quoth is "used with an ironical or 
sarcastic implication." 

52: 7. Jesting monkey. Reference to Trinculo as King 
Stephano's jester. Cf. pied ninny and patch, line 25. 

52: 11. By this hand. A petty oath. Cf. line 31. 

52: 25. Pied ninny. Parti-colored fool. So called because 
the professional jester wore motley, or a dress of various colors. 
Patch is explained in the same way. 

52:32. Stock-fish. The stock-fish (dried cod) was beaten 
before it was cooked. 

53: 11. Stand farther off. Stephano may say this to Trinculo 
as a warning that he will get another blow if he gets too close; 
or it may be said to Caliban whose "ancient, fish-like smell" was 
disagreeable. The former seems the better interpretation for 
Trinculo says just above that he will go farther off. 

53: 17. Seiz'd his books. Magicians were supposed to be 
powerless without the aid of their books. Cf . the injunction in 
Milton's Comus, line 653, to seize the wand of Comus. 

53 : 18. Paunch him with a stake. Run a stake into his belly. 

53 : 23. Burn but his books. Only burn his books, i. e., do not 
fail to burn them. 

53: 25. Brave utensils . . • deck withal. Brave utensils with 
which he will deck his house when he has it. Utensils is ac- 
cented on the first and third syllables. 

53 : 26. To consider. To be considered. 

53: 32. Is it. For other unusual uses of personal pronouns, 
see page 23, line 1, and note to page t,^, line 26. 

54: 15. Any reason. Anything reasonable. 



104 NOTES 

54: 17. Thought is free. Cf. Twelfth Night, I, 3, 73: "Now, 
Sir, ' thought is free.'" 

54: 21. Picture of Nobody. This perhaps alludes to a print 
on the title-page of an old comedy, Nobody is Somebody (1606). 
This print depicted the figure of a man without a body, but with 
head, arms, and legs. Or it may be an allusion to the sign in 
front of the shop of one John Trundle for whom the above- 
mentioned comedy was printed, for the title-page bears the in- 
scription: " Printed for John Trundle and are to be sold at his 
shop in the Barbican, at the sign of No-body." 

55: 10. Story. Caliban's account of how Prospero may be 
killed and the result. 

55: 16. By'r iakin. By our little lady (The Virgin Mary). 

55: 18. Forthrights and meanders. Straight paths and wind- 
ing paths. 

55: 28. Out of hope of Ferdinand's being alive. 

56: 11. Above. The usual Elizabethan stage consisted of 
three parts: the front stage, the rear stage separated from the 
front stage by a traverse or curtain, and the balcony over the 
rear stage. It is in the balcony that Prospero appears, from 
which point, according to the conventions of the theater, he 
would be invisible to Ferdinand and Miranda though of course 
visible to the audience. 

56: 12. Living drollery. A drollery was a puppet-show in 
which the figures were wooden dolls; a living drollery would 
then be a show in which the characters are live personages. 

56: 13. Unicorns. Fabulous one-horned animals. 

56: 14. One tree . . . one phoenix. In Lyly's Euphues and 
his England is found the following: " As there is but one Phoenix 
in the world, so is there but one tree in Arabia, wherein she 
buildeth." The phoenix is a fabulous bird reputed to exist 
single, to bring about its own death by fire and then to rise 
again from its own ashes. It is an emblem of immortality. 

57: 7. Praise in departing. A proverbial expression mean- 
ing wait and see how the entertainment ends before you 
praise it. 



NOTES 105 

57: 16. Wallets of flesh. Instead of accepting the interpre- 
tation, goitre, which has usually been given this phrase, Fur- 
ness quotes from a chapter on The Satyre in a collection 
of traveled tales of the Middle Ages made by Gesner: 
"Satyres have no humain conditions in them, nor other re- 
semblance of men beside their outward shape. . . . They carry 
their meat under their chin as in a store-house, and from thence 
being hungry they take it forth to eate." Furness is of the 
opinion "that the pouched apes gave rise to the story." 

57: 17. Men whose heads stood in their breasts. Cf. Othello, 
I, 3, 144, 145. "The Anthropophagi and men whose heads 
do grow beneath their shoulders." Shakespeare may have 
read such accounts in the travel literature of his time. 

57: 18. Each putter-out of five for one. Each traveler who 
insures at the rate of five pounds for one pound. The following 
from Ben Jonson's Every Man out of his Humor, II, 1, makes 
this passage plain and illustrates the peculiar form of life insur- 
ance in vogue at the time: "I do intend . . . to travel, and . . . 
I am determined to put forth some five thousand pound to be 
paid me five for one upon the return of myself, my wife, and my 
dog from the Turk's court in Constantinople. If all or either of 
us miscarry in the journey, 'tis gone; if we be successful, why, 
there will be five and twenty thousand pound to entertain time 
withal." Less hazardous expeditions insured at lower rates. 

58: 5. Still-closing waters. The waters that constantly close 
over the w r ounds made in them by the swords. 

58: 6. Dowle. Feathery or wool-like down. Webster's Inter- 
national Dictionary cites a late use of the word by DeQuincey: 
"No feather, or dowle of a feather." 

58: 19. Worse . . • at once. Worse than our sudden death 
can be. 

58: 25. A grace it had, devouring. An absorbing charm. 

58: 28. With good life and observation strange. In a very 
lifelike manner and with remarkable care. 

59: 1. My meaner ministers . . . have done. My humbler 
spirits their respective characters have performed. 



106 NOTES 

59: 10. It. His crime, the trespass against Prospero. For a 
similar use of the indefinite it, see page 50, line 7, and note. 

59 : 13. Bass my trespass. Announced my guilt in deep tones. 

59: 17. But one fiend at a time. Let the fiends come singly. 

59: 22. Gins to bite. Begins to cause anguish to. 

60:3. A thread of my own life. The word thread is an 
emendation of the First Folio reading third, and has caused 
much comment. In the light of the line following, Or that for 
which I live, the adherents of the Folio reading generally inter- 
pret the word as the third of what Prospero lives for, viz., his 
daughter, himself, and his dukedom. Those who adopt the 
emendation thread of the present text, regard the word as mean- 
ing sl fibre or portion of his life, one of his very heartstrings, which 
Prospero gives to Ferdinand in bestowing Miranda upon him. 

60: 13. Against an oracle. Though an oracle pronounced 
otherwise. 

60: 19. Aspersion, Used here in its primitive meaning of 
sprinkling, as of dew or rain. In the Roman Catholic church the 
Asperges is the sprinkling of the congregation with holy water 
by the priest. 

60: 22. Weeds. The custom was to deck the nuptial bed with 
flowers. 

60: 24. Take heed* As Hymen's lamps shall light you. Hy- 
men was the god of marriage. The passage means "Be careful 
to do nothing that Hymen's lamps do not guide you to do." 

60: 28. Opportune. Accented on the second syllable. 

61: 1. Worser genius can. Genius here means the good or 
evil spirit within a person governing his conduct. Worser. 
Double comparative. Cf. page 12, line 22, and page 27, line 26. 
Can. Can make. 

61 : 4. Phoebus' steeds. Phoebus was the god of the sun and 
drove around the world in a chariot drawn by four horses. 

61 : 10. Meaner fellows. More humble companions. Cf . 
meaner ministers, page 58, line 28. 

61 : 23. Mop and mow. Facial grimaces. 

62: 1. Good night your vow. Farewell to your vow. 



NOTES 107 

62 : 8. No tongue . . . silent. Noise would break the spell. 
Cf. page 64, lines 20-21. 

62 : 9. Iris. The rainbow. She was the special attendant and 
messenger of Juno. Ceres. Goddess of agriculture. 

62: 13. Pioned and lilied brims. Lilied is substituted in this 
passage for the word twilled of the First Folio. The line means 
that the banks are covered with peonies (marsh-marigolds) and 
lilies. The passage has aroused considerable discussion. Fur- 
ness concludes, " We have simply lost the meaning of the words 
pioned and twilled, which were perfectly intelligible to Shake- 
speare's audience." 

62: 15. Broom groves. As the broom plant does not grow 
to a height sufficient to call it a "grove," the emendation brown 
(Hanmer's) has been rather generally accepted. 

62: 17. Dismissed bachelor . . . being lass-lorn. The re- 
jected suitor being forsaken by his sweetheart. Pole-clipt vine- 
yard is one where the vines are twined around poles. Clip means 
to embrace. Cf. Winter's Tale, V, 2: "Then again worries he his 
daughter with clipping her;" Antony and Cleopatra, IV, 8, 8: 
"Clip your wives." 

62: 19. Queen o' the sky. Juno. 

62: 23. Peacocks. Juno's chariot was drawn by peacocks. 

62 : 28. Honey-drops. Drops of rain as sweet as honey. 

63: 1. Bosky. Wooded. Cf. Milton's Comus, I, 313. "And 
every bosky bourn from side to side." 

63 : 8. Venus or her son. Venus was the goddess of beauty. 
Cupid was her son. 

63: 10. Dusky Dis my daughter got. Pluto, the god of the 
lower regions, kidnapped Proserpina, Ceres' daughter. 

63: 15. Paphos. A town in the island of Cyprus in which 
there was a temple to Venus. 

63: 16. Dove-drawn. Venus' chariot was drawn by doves. 

63: 20. Mars' hot minion is returned again. I. e., gone back 
to Paphos. Minion means darling. 

63: 27,. Waspish-headed son . . . boy right out. Cupid was 
easily irritated, and he is so chagrined at not being able to do 



108 NOTES 

"Some wanton charm upon this man and maid" that he vows 
he will no longer act the love-god but play with his sparrows 
(sacred to his mother, Venus) and be a genuine boy. 

63: 24. Highest queen of state. I. e., queen of highest state. 

64: 6. Spring come . . . end of harvest. Two interpreta- 
tions have been given this couplet. Mrs. Kemble says it means 
"that spring shall rapidly succeed autumn, leaving the dreary 
winter out of the calendar" and quotes Leviticus XXVI, 5: "And 
your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage 
shall reach unto the sowing time." Staunton quotes Spenser's 
Faerie Queette, III, 6, 42 : 

"There is a continuall Spring, and harvest there, 
Continuall, both meeting at one tyme." 
He refers also to Amos, IX, 13: "Behold, the days come, saith 
the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the 
treader of grapes him that soweth seed." 

64: 10. Harmonious charmingly. Charmingly harmonious, 
charmingly being used in the sense of a magical charm. 

64: 16. A wonder'd father. A father able to perform wonders. 

64: 23. Sedg'd crowns. Crowns of sedge. 

65: 21. Rack. Drifting, vapory clouds. Used here perhaps 
to refer to the thin gauze stage hangings behind which the 
characters disappeared in productions of masques and pageants. 

66: 2. Come with a thought. Come with the speed of 
thought. 

66:5. Meet with. Oppose. 

66: 16. Advanc'd their eyelids. Cf. page 26, line 17 and note. 

66: 21. Filthy mantled. Scum-covered. 

66: 23. O'erstunk their feet. Stank worse than their feet. 

67: 2. Even to roaring. Until they roar. 

67: 3. On this line. Two explanations have been given this: 
(1) Clothes-line, (2) line or linden tree which was called line 
tree or simply line. Ariel refers to this tree later: "In the line- 
grove which weather-fends your cell." Page 69, line 23. 

67: 7. Played the Jack. Jack-o'-Lantern. Cf. firebrand, 
page 41, line 19. Another common meaning of Jack is knave. 



NOTES 109 

67: 13. Hoodwink. To cover up. Caliban uses the word in 
our sense of "to make up for." 

67: 20. O'er ears. I. e., in the filthy-mantled pool. 

67: 29. O King Stephano! O peer! An allusion to an old 
song a stanza of which Shakespeare uses in Othello, II, 3, 90-95: 
"King Stephen was a worthy peer, 
His breeches cost him but a crown; 
He held them sixpence all too dear 
With that he call'd the tailor lown." 

68: 11. Strange stuff ... "he will pinch our skins black and 
blue, and thus make us into a strange stuff." 

68: 13. Under the line. Stephano probably slips the jerkin 
under his belt; or, the phrase was possibly a slang one for "hang- 
ing by the neck." 

68: 14. Lose your hair. This may refer to the line. Clothes- 
lines were made of hair in the sixteenth century. Cf. Lyly's 
Midas: "All my mistres' lynes that she dryes her cloathes on, 
are made only of mustachio stuff e." (The cuttings of mustaches). 

68: 15. By line and level. Trinculo continues to pun on line. 
Line and level are carpenter's terms. The phrase means "ac- 
cording to rule." 

68: 18. Pass of pate. Stroke of wit, pass being a technical 
term in fencing. 

68: 20. Lime. Bird-lime, a sticky substance put on trees to 
catch birds. Cf. Macbeth, IV, 2, 34: "Poor bird! thou'ldst never 
fear the net nor lime." As line and lime referring to trees were 
interchangeable terms, Trinculo is still punning on line. 

68: 22. Lose our time. That is, the time to kill Prospero be- 
fore he wakes. Cf. page 54, line 7. 

68: 23. Barnacles. Geese. Contemporary accounts tell of a 
species of goose bred out of shell-fish which grew on trees. 

68 : 24. Foreheads . . . low. The Elizabethans regarded high 
foreheads as a mark of beauty. Cf. Antony and Cleopatra, III, 
3, 35, and Two Gentlemen of Verona, IV, 4, 198. 

68: 27. Go to. A term of various meanings. Here it is 
equivalent to "come on." 



1 10 NOTES 

69: 14. Time goes upright with his carriage. Time instead of 
bending under his burden, as he is usually represented, walks 
erect. Prospero means that all of his plans are succeeding. 

69: 23. Weather-fends your cell. Protects your cell from the 
weather. 

69 : 24. Till your release. Till you release them. 

70: 12. That relish all as sharply passion as they. Relish 
means feel, all means quite, and passion means joy or sorrow, 
and is the accusative after relish. The passage then means, 
"that feels joy or sorrow quite as sharply as they." Kindlier. 
Not in the sense of "compassion," but in the sense of "more 
naturally," "like one of my kind." Cf. the use of kind in the 
preceding line. 

70: 22. Ye elves . . . potent art. The greater part of 'this 
passage has its origin in Ovid's Metamorphoses , VII, 197-214, 
which Shakespeare had doubtless read in Golding's translation 

(1567). 

70: 27. Green sour ringlets. Circles of darker green grass 
than the surrounding greensward, and more bitter to the taste. 
These circles were popularly supposed to be caused by the fairies 
dancing in a ring. 

70: 29. Midnight mushrooms. Mushrooms grow up quickly 
in the course of a night. They too were attributed to fairies. 

70:30. Rejoice to hear . . . curfew. Fairies and spirits 
sported only at night. 

70:31. Weak masters. Inferior masters of magical powers 
when unaided. 

7 o: 35- Jove's stout oak. The oak was sacred to Jupiter. 

71 : 14. Unsettled fancy. Troubled imagination. 

71 : 15. Boil'd. Cf. Winter's Tale, III, 3, 63: "Would any but 
these boiPd brains of nineteen and two-and-twenty hunt this 
weather?" Cf. also A Midsummer Night's Dream, V, 1, 4, 
"Lovers and madmen have such seething brains." 

71: 19. Mine eyes . . . drops. "Mine eyes, fully in sym- 
pathy with the appearance of thine, let fall compassionate tears." 

71: 22. Ignorant fumes. The mists that cause ignorance. 



NOTES in 

72 : 9. Reasonable shore. As Prospero dissolves the spell he 
has cast around them, their reason slowly returns. 

72: 13. Disease me. Put off my disguise. 

72: 14. Sometime Milan. When Duke of Milan. 

72: 18. When owls do cry. At night. 

72: 20. After summer. "In pursuit of summer/' not "after 
summer has gone." 

73: 11. Trifle to abuse. Phantom to deceive. 

73: 16. An if this be at all. If this be a reality. 

73: 17. Resign. Surrender. Antonio had made the dukedom 
of Milan a fief to Alonso, King of Naples (page 15, lines 30-33). 

73: 18. My wrongs. The wrongs done you by me. 

73 : 26. Taste some subtleties. Experience some deceptions. 
Subtleties, however, was a cooking term for a device in pastry. 
Wright quotes from Fabyan's Chronicle, which gives an account 
of the feast at the coronation of Catherine, Queen of Henry V: 
"And a sotyltie called a Pellycane sytting on his nest." The 
word taste doubtless suggested the word subtleties. 

73: 34. No. The emendation now has been suggested. 

74: 15. Of whose soft grace. From whose gentle favor. 

74: 19. As great to me as late. As great to me as it is recent. 

74: 21. Supportable . . . comfort you. Transpose this pas- 
sage into its prose order and the meaning becomes plain: "And I 
have much weaker means than you may call to comfort you to 
make the dear loss supportable." Prospero has lost his only 
child, while Alonso has a daughter to comfort him. 

74 : 30. Do so much admire . . . reason. Are so greatly 
astonished that they cannot believe their reason. 

74:31. Their eyes do offices of truth . . . natural breath. 
That their eyes perform their functions truthfully and that their 
words are those of real live men. 

75 : 4. Not a relation for a breakfast. Not a story brief 
enough to be told at breakfast. 

75: 12. Discovers. He reveals them by drawing a curtain. 

75: 16. You should wrangle . . . would. Should you wrangle 
I would, etc. 



112 NOTES 

76: 23. Was Milan thrust from Milan? Was Prospero, the 
Duke of Milan, thrust from his Duchy of Milan? 

76: 31. When no man was his own. When no man was his 
own master. 

77 : 6. Safely found. Found safe. 

77: 8. Three glasses. Three hours. Cf. three hours, page 75, 
line 32. Cf. also, page 20, line 17. Note that the unity of time, 
one of the three Classical Unities, is adhered to in this play. 

77: 23. Freshly beheld. Beheld fresh. 

77 : 25. Capering to eye her. Dancing at beholding her. On a 
trice. In a moment. 

78: 6. Single I'll resolve you. I'll explain to you privately. 

78: 8. Every these happen'd accidents. All the events that 
have occurred. 

78: 15. Shift for all the rest, etc. Stephano is still under the 
influence of his bottle. 

78: 27. Plain fish. A mere fish. 

78 : 28. Badges. Devices, worn by servants on their livery and 
usually bearing the shield or coat of arms of their masters. 

79: 1. Deal in her command without her power. Wield her 
authority beyond her sphere or power. 

79: n. Gilded 'em. Made them drunk. There is perhaps a 
reference to the aurum potabile (drinkable gold), the elixir of 
life of the alchemists. Perhaps also the faces of Trinculo and 
Stephano are glowing, as they are both drunk. 

79: 15. Fear fly-blowing. Flies will not blow pickled meat. 
Trinculo is punning on pickle. 

80 : 4. Accidents gone by. Events that have happened. 

80: 10. My grave. On my death. 

80: 29. Help of your good hands. An invitation to the au- 
dience to applaud. Noise would break the spell. 

81 : 1. Gentle breath of yours. Your good will. 

81 : 6. Prayer. Many plays concluded with a prayer for the 
sovereign. 

81 : 8. Mercy itself. The merciful God. 



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